Alfredo Juan González Rostgaard

Advertising illustrator, painter, graphic designer and professor; he stood out for creating the poster that represented the symbol of the new Cuban song, The Rose and the Thorn, which contains not only the value of national folk song but also its relationships with the intelligent and reflective singing of the world, originally conceived for the Protest Song Meeting at Casa de las Américas.

He was born in the city of Guantánamo, Province of Oriente.

A graduate of the School of Plastic Arts of Santiago de Cuba, in his early years of artistic work, in the late 1950s, he ventured into advertising and after the early years of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution he joined the graphic design of revolutionary propaganda.

Although his work as a graphic designer covered diverse forms of propaganda, he distinguished himself through his posters addressing social, cultural and political themes, in which he was presumptuous and imaginative, characterized by using his own style where he conveniently employed influences from the plastic avant-garde such as op and pop art, which allowed him to exhibit graphic works of penetrating chromatic vigor and figurative expressions, with the creation of explicit configurations of symbolic allusions that enabled him to achieve communicative immediacy.

A finalist for several consecutive years among those nominated for the National Prize for Plastic Arts; due to the thematic diversity he addressed, his high artistic values and the communicative effectiveness of his works, the Design Center of the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada, considered him one of the seven greats of Cuban revolutionary poster design.

Among the national and international institutions where his posters are currently displayed are: the Commission for Revolutionary Orientation (COR), Department of Revolutionary Orientation (DOR), Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAAL), Continental Latin American Organization of Students (OCLAE), Latin American Organization of Solidarity (OLAS), Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC), Casa de las Américas (CA) and the Higher Institute of Industrial Design (ISDI); at the latter he served as a professor. He served as president and member of juries for national and international poster competitions.

In his trajectory as a multifaceted creator, exponent of emblematic works, particularly in Cuban poster design, although he began through Intercomunicaciones, an entity that between 1961 and 1966 handled social-oriented propaganda for the Revolutionary Government ministries; his first recognition came with an award obtained in 1964 at the First National Competition of Traffic Posters and an Honorable Mention in the Carnival Posters competition of Havana in 1965.

Winner in 1966 of the Second Prize at the V National Exhibition of Cuban Posters; he is among the precursors of graphic design of the Cuban Revolution for the promotion of cultural events and political and social content, which emerged during the golden age of the poster, which began in the second half of the 1960s and extended into the early 1970s.

He was part of the professionals from the Intercomunicaciones Agency who entered in 1966 the Technical Team of the Commission for Revolutionary Orientation (COR) which since 1961 had been responsible for official revolutionary propaganda policy and where graphic propaganda actions were developed that, sustained in Marxist-Leninist principles and without resorting to mental incitement of the individual, acquired an educational and guiding character.

From 1965 to 1970 he participated in the graphic production of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC), where he designed over 200 posters for the presentation of film premieres, among which were: Cuban films; The Robbery (1965) and The Maroon (1966), Czechoslovak film Leap into Darkness (1965), Cuban documentary NOW! (1965), Hungarian film Where Was Your Majesty from 3 to 5 (1966), the Franco-Italian film The Sky Threatens (1966), Polish film The Hot Line (1966), Cuban cinematography The Death of a Bureaucrat (1966) and the documentary Until Victory Always (1968) and for the Japanese film Masseuse Ichi, The Fugitive (1968). His designs exposed optical and kinetic effects and the pop line, interwoven with sparkling perspicacious symbolism.

Parallel to his contributions for ICAIC, from 1967 to 1975, he was in charge of artistic direction of the Tricontinental magazine and the design of posters for the Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAAL) where besides significant contributions of over thirty solidarity posters, there were anti-advertisements, which he introduced in 1967, an initiative he had experimented with during 1966 when he served as Founding Artistic Director of the Pensamiento Crítico magazine at the University of Havana, where he achieved graphic contributions with metaphorical configurations in which he inverted the symbols of capitalist advertising with suggestions in favor of revolutionary forces.

As Artistic Director, founder of the Tricontinental magazine and its Department of Publications and Dissemination of the Solidarity Organization, besides the anti-advertisement, in his graphic work he introduced various innovative graphic initiatives, in which alluding to imagination and initiatives with communicative designs of an unprecedented, precise, clear and direct language he achieved expressions of excellent communicative effectiveness. Among which stood out posters bearing the iconography of Che and those that were distributed folded in the magazine and other publications of OSPAAAL.

In 1967, together with designer Lázaro Abreu Padrón, he contributed the design of the pamphlet with the Che's Message to the Tricontinental and its accompanying poster with unpublished images of that great internationalist fighter. That same year he created the design of the poster for the ICAIC-OSPAAAL Film Section for the documentary Hanoi, Tuesday the 13th by director Santiago Álvarez, 38 minutes long, based on a text by José Martí in the Gilded Age, written in 1889, displaying affection and sympathy toward the children of Vietnam.

In 1968 he introduced in the Tricontinental magazine and its posters the use of the traditional Japanese technique of Origami, with printed folds that when opened or unfolded impact with political messages in favor of the struggle. Likewise, in 1968 stood out Black Power. Response to Assassination: Revolutionary Violence and in 1969 Radiant Che and Guerrilla Christ.

Framed with similar configuration to the OSPAAAL poster, in 1967 he created the poster that identified the celebration of the First Conference of the Latin American Organization of Solidarity (OLAS) which won a prize in a competition called by the Organizing Committee. This work that identified him as an emblematic creator of militant graphics committed to international solidarity was characterized by the use of color degradation, the use of summarized images and the ordered reiteration of a rhythmic succession of rifles placed horizontally. In another of the posters to greet the celebration of said event was the one bearing the text: First Conference, Cuba, July 1967 "the duty of every revolutionary is to make the revolution" in which impacts of shots on glass with a black background allude to the struggle against military dictatorships.

In that effervescent decade of the sixties he reaffirmed his full creative maturity in three important posters, two of which emerged from Casa de las Américas in 1967: Solidarity with Cuba awarded in a competition in celebration of July 26 and the Protest Song Festival, demonstrating his eloquent contribution in the domain of metaphorical expression and assimilation of figurative symbolism that became a representative symbol of Cuban graphics. And the third was the Prize Winner at the I National Exhibition of July 26 Posters; Tenth Anniversary ICAIC.

In the first five years of the 1970s, a period of communicative plurality in which the 1970 Exhibition, called by the Fine Arts Museum, included graphic design as a plastic manifestation and in the context of its celebration, in which the Cuban poster transcended as a work of art, in his ascending trajectory in the conceptualization of Cuban graphics, Alfredo Rostgaard was part of the collective of designers that received in 1970 the Special Prize during the First International Competition of Cinematographic Posters of the XXI International Film Festival of Cannes, France.

In 1970 in the first book that internationally disseminated the achievements of the Cuban poster in the world, edited and presented in three languages: Spanish, English and German, with the title The Art Revolution, authored by Dugald Stermer; with an introduction by Susan Sontag, New Cork editorial, Mc Graw-Hill Books, the eloquent metaphorical expression was inserted on its cover with the configuration of Rostgaard's poster for the Protest Song Festival. By then his graphic creations were present in 1970 at the Poster Biennale of Warsaw, Poland and he was also awarded in 1972 by Casa de las Américas (CA) and again in 1974 received the Special Prize (collective) at the International Festival of Posters Cannes.

Two other important causes of the anti-imperialist struggle that strengthened his internationalist revolutionary motivations during this period were demonstrated in contributions from the Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAAL); these were solidarity with the struggle against racial discrimination and civil rights of Black people in the United States, in 1971 and 1972 respectively; which he expressed with the posters Black Power and another with the iconography of Angela Davis, symbol of the international movement for the liberation of that outstanding communist and leader of the struggle for civil rights in that country.

The other exaltations were associated against the intervention of the United States in Indochina, shown in the poster of the ICAIC-OSPAAAL Film Section, The Forgotten War of Laos and in 1972, that showing satisfaction for the downing of the American aircraft 4000 in Vietnam, tomb of imperialism and that of the defeat of the invading forces. Vietnam! April 1975

From the creative diversity that originated between 1974 and 1989, his contributions to the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) stood out, to which he had been linked since its creation in 1961, his works were simple, employing bright colors, bearing synthesized or simple elements, subordinate to form and sometimes with descriptive sense.

By then he resorted to the use of stencil and airbrush, as well as craft construction, managing to establish contrast with pop contributions that allowed him to obtain graphic works of high aesthetic-communicative flights. Such characterizations in his cultural poster contributions for UNEAC were evident in 1977 Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). II Congress of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. October 10-13, 1978. Plastic Arts Exhibition of UNEAC and in 1981 UNEAC Twenty Years.

In 1976 Alfredo Rostgaard received the Gold Medal for Visual Communication Design with the poster NO (Against environmental pollution); which he presented during the III Biennial of Graphic Arts of Cali, Colombia and his works were present in 1978 in the exhibition "Eleven Years of Political Graphics". International Art Center Gallery, Havana. Likewise two important posters distinguished his work, in 1979, for Casa de las Américas (CA); Twentieth Anniversary of Casa de las Américas and for the Ministry of Culture (MC) CARIFESTA.

As a crowning achievement of his important contributions he became worthy of two significant recognitions in: 1980 the Order of Cultural Merit. Republic of Poland and in 1981 Distinction for National Culture. Council of State of the Republic of Cuba.

In this decade he ventured into the use of papier-mâché, toys for adults, locomotives, kites, butterflies, cars and other elements to which besides their decorative values, provided a communicative and utilitarian function because some served to hold envelopes and pens; from these artistic creations in 1980 he presented an exhibition that was shown at the Museum of Decorative Arts in a shared exhibition with Modesto Braulio.

His venture into papier-mâché did not mean abandoning his attachment to the poster and his works were represented in important collective exhibitions such as: 1981; Graphics XV Anniversary of OSPAAAL, Habana Libre Hotel, 1982 The Cuban Rascurre Group, California; United States and Festival de L. Hermanité, Paris; France, 1982-1983 Permanent Exhibition of OSPAAAL posters at the Mar Azul Hotel; Santa María del Mar, Havana and in 1983 Cuban Posters in Tokyo, Japan.

In 1987 in the Larousse Dictionary of Painting, published in Barcelona, Spain the ranges of colors used in his graphic works and the stylization of his drawings were highlighted, aspects shown in contributions in 1989, such as: Atelier Cuba (BIENNE/BIEL) and that of the Ministry of Culture (MC). XI National Fair of Popular Art.

In the nineties his creations of toys and various figures in papier-mâché, which he showed in 1992 in the exhibition Posters, Gouaches, Paper Toys, Xalapa, Mexico; were associated with teaching activity in that country where in 1993 he taught design classes at the Gestalt School of Design of Xalapa, Veracruz in which he received recognition as Senior Master. There he combined his pedagogical work with the creation of commemorative posters for the visit of master teachers Dorotea Flury and Massimo Hachen from the Basel School, Switzerland and from the Polytechnic of Design in Milan, Italy, respectively.

The second half of the nineties was characterized by the prominence and relevance of his posters, through the creation of reconfigured versions of previous works as in 1997 the poster for Casa de las Américas (CA). Songs of the Rose and the Thorn, in which he presented a reformulation of the poster from the Protest Song Festival (1967) and the original unpublished in 1998 for the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba; UNEAC VI Congress.

His various contributions from previous years were revealed in catalogs and exhibitions, among which in 1996 can be listed: pamphlet by Richard Frick. Das Revolutionare OSPAAAL-Plakat. Organization with the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America and exhibition A Poster for Three Continents, Havana, Cuba.

His creations were also shown in 1997 the catalog book, The OSPAAAL Poster. Art of Solidarity; with presentation words by Dr. Ramón Pez Ferro and Lic. Eladio Rivadulla Pérez this work constituted a joint edition of the Tricontinental magazine and the Editorial IL Papiro, Milan; Italy. His posters were also exhibited in the following exhibitions: International Exhibition of Plastic and Graphic Art. The Constant Image, Cuba Pavilion, Havana, Exhibition from the Center for Development of Visual Arts titled Evocation and in the Exhibition Tribute to Ernesto Che Guevara. Two publications left testimony of his artistic-communicative creations: the Magazine Casa de las Américas. Year XXXVIII. No. 208. Havana, July-September; with a Retrospective of Alfredo Rostgaard and in the Catalog of the Exhibition Always the Rose, with words from Professor Adelaida de Juan.

Between 1998 and 1999 his graphic work was recorded in the exhibitions: Posters of Africa at OSPAAAL, The Constant Image presented in Greece, Ecuador and Dominican Republic and Tribute Exhibition Cuban Contemporary Posters. Center for Development of Visual Arts, Havana, Cuba.

At the end of the twentieth century he stood out for his teaching work at the Higher Institute of Industrial Design (ISDI) where he taught the subject of Poster to young students in training who would integrate the new generation of Cuban designers: His creative and teaching work was masterfully presented in 1999 in the work by Professor Marina Rodríguez Gonzáles, The Cuban Poster Talking with Rostgaard. Editora Política, Havana, Cuba.

Other evocations of his contributions to Cuban poster design were eloquently manifested by Professor Jorge R. Bermúdez. In his work The Constant Image. The Cuban Poster of the Twentieth Century. Editorial Letras Cubanas; Havana, as well as in the significant exhibitions The Constant Image. Museum of the City of Havana (2000), Two Sidewalks. Contemporary Cuban Graphics. Gallery 23 and 10 ICAIC (2001), Political Posters 35 Years of OSPAAAL (2001), CD ROM Exhibition The Constant Image. Exhibition of Cuban Posters of the Twentieth Century; Gallery 23 and 12, Havana (2002) and Looking at the 60s. Building of Cuban Art. National Museum of Fine Arts. Exhibition Wall of the May Salon and Anthology of Cuban Posters (2003).

Among the textbooks that reflect his significant contributions can be cited: those made in 2003 by Lincoln Cushing ¡Revolución! Cuban Poster Art Chronicle Book, San Francisco, United States and by Richard Frick. The Tricontinental Poster. With words by Ulises Estrada Lescaille, Mirta Muñiz, Reinaldo Morales Campos, Jorge R. Bermúdez, Alfredo González Rostgaard, Olivio Martínez, Lázaro Abreu Padrón and René Lechliter Edition Comedia-Verlang Bern, Switzerland.

In 2004, as recognition for his outstanding lifetime dedication to the Revolution and art, he was awarded the Eduardo Muñoz Bachs Design Prize from the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC).

He died in 2004 from a malignant tumor.

Source: Reinaldo Morales Campos. Researcher of the Historical Memory of the Cuban Poster. Specialist in Advertising and Propaganda. Monografías.com