1977
NAMIBIA WILL WIN!, 1977
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL (the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America). Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. This poster was made in support of Namibia’s movement for independence from South African rule. OSPAAAL’s designers regularly used adapted photographs from the organisation’s news desk. Photographs were sometimes used out of context, with the same photographs appearing in posters and magazine illustrations to represent different themes. The identity of the child in this poster is not known.
Content warning: weaponry
Untitled, c. 1977
British illustrator Janina Ede (1937-2018) created covers and illustrations for over 100 books from the 1950s to the 1980s. Her illustrations for Einar and the Seal (1977) used scraperboard, a material used to create a form of engraving. A board coated with a layer of dark ink is scraped to reveal a white or coloured area underneath.
Day of Solidarity with the People of GUATEMALA, 1977
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL (the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America). Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. For this poster, Alberto Blanco González used a photograph of Luis Augusto Turcios Lima taken at the 1966 Tricontinental conference. The 24-year-old was killed in a car accident later that year, but was remembered as a leader of the guerrilla group, the Rebel Armed Forces during the Guatemalan Civil War. Rather than creating formal portraits, many of OSPAAAL’s designers took inspiration from pop art and commercial advertising in their representations of political figures.
CAPITALISM: DENIAL OF HUMAN RIGHTS, 1977
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL (the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America). Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. From 1977 onwards, Rafael EnrÃquez Vega was creative director at OSPAAAL and a prolific poster designer. For this design he used Leonardo da Vinci’s illustration of the Vitruvian Man, adding chains to represent the idea that capitalism enslaves people.
Untitled (illustration for "Einar and the Seal"), c. 1977
Janina Ede (1937-2018) created covers and illustrations for over 100 books from the 1950s to the 1980s. Many of her illustrations feature animals, which she drew from life.
