Rene Mederos - Vietnamese Soldier (1969)

A prominent Cuban poster artist and graphic designer, Rene Mederos was a representative of a wave of artists who were as much Pop art as communist propaganda. In 1969, he was assigned by the Department of Revolutionary Orientation to travel to Vietnam and paint scenes of the war. Urging solidarity with the people of Vietnam, his paintings and posters gained tremendous popularity in Cuba, but also in the Unitet States among the more liberal parts of the public that remained strongly anti-war. Mederos' firmly contoured surfaces with their ebullience of patterns derived from nature almost seem to hark back to glory days of Art nouveau.

Featured image: Rene Mederos - Vietnamese Soldier, limited edition poster, Cuba, 1969