?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
RENÉ MEDEROS (1933-1996) [NOTHING IS MORE PRECIOUS THAN INDEPENDENCE AND FREEDOM.] 1974. 28 1/2x21 3/4 inches, 72 1/2x55 1/4 cm. Condition A-: minor creases and abrasions in margins and image. Silkscreen. Paper. After traveling to Vietnam on assignment from the Cuban Commission of Revolutionary Orientation in 1969 and 1972, Mederos created a series of posters supporting the ideologies of the Cuban Revolution and anti-imperialism. 'This theme, of a nation surviving under siege, largely reflects the economic and political reality of U.S. - Cuban relations and has artistic precedents in posters produced in the United States during the Second World War' (Cushing p. 15). Here, Mederos employed his masterful line work and color blocking to depict Ho Chi Minh, the late Communist president of North Vietnam, in this pictorial exaltation of the figurehead. Above, are the words of North Vietnamese General Phung Quang Thanh, 'There is nothing more precious than independence and freedom,' a sentiment echoed and disseminated throughout Mederos' designs. While occasionally criticized for underemphasizing the suffering of the Vietnamese people at the hands of the U.S., the posters found success internationally, establishing Mederos as an influential developer of Cuban graphic design.
![RENÉ MEDEROS (1933-1996). [NOTHING IS MORE PRECIOUS THAN INDEPENDENCE AND FREEDOM.] 1974. 28x21 inches, 72x55 cm.](https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//123\713123.jpg)
