Alfredo J. González Rostgaard (1943-2004)

¿The poster came to signify for Cuba what muralism was for Mexico¿, declared on one occasion the recently passed Alfredo J. González Rostgaard, one of the designers who in the 1960s and 70s catapulted the Cuban poster to universal scale. This visual communicator produced numerous cultural and political posters, in several of which put a contribution to op art (to which he was one of the pioneers in Cuba). He participated in numerous international graphics biennials and in various he obtained prizes, for example: the gold medal in the 3rd Biennial of Graphic Arts in Cali, Colombia (1976); and the Collective Special Prize in the 1st International Competition of Posters for Films, in Cannes, France (1973). Coming from a school of plastic arts, González Rostgaard also elaborated ¿penetrables¿ and papier maché toys: artifacts that denoted the ludicrous intention present in his previous incursion into graphic humorism. The latter had put him in contact, at the beginning of the seventies, with periodic publications. Later he became, and remained for years, artistic director and designer of magazines such as Tricontinental (belonging to the Organization of Solidarity with People of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAAAL). He also designed book and record covers. Multiple exhibitions and recognitions (among these, winning a Cuenca Biennial with a poster of an ecological theme) have supported the quality of this visual creator, who came to preside the plastic arts section of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). He also received the Distinction for National Culture, was member of the International Association of Plastic Arts (AIAP) and in various occasions was nominated for the National Prize of Plastic Arts and for the National Prize for Design. His last exhibition whilst still alive, organized in the Cuban gallery Villa Manuela, was the context in which he was awarded the Eduardo Muñoz Bachs Graphic Design Prize, a distinction that the UNEAC awarded for the first time. This homage-show included various of his anthological posters: Canción protesta [Protest Song] (also known as La rosa y la espina ¿ The rose and the thorn), announcer of the no less transcendental meeting of the new song in Latin America, supported by Casa de las Americas in 1967; Now, a poster corresponding to film material of the same name, considered one of the world¿s precursors to the video clip; and his no less classic Cristo guerillero, that was initially a painting. These and other works by González Rostgaard can be found in museums in Europe and America and are well auctioned in Christie¿s.