Vedasto Orfilio Acosta Febles

A simple man, selfless, highly motivated to work, create and do it well, which is why for most of his life he was absorbed in carrying out several works and projects simultaneously, some of which remained unfinished. A relevant figure in the plastic arts of the municipality of San José de las Lajas, province of Mayabeque, Cuba.

He was born in San José de las Lajas, a municipality in the former province of La Habana, now the province of Mayabeque, coming from a humble family. Possessing enormous natural artistic talents evident since childhood and an education that was mostly self-taught, he burst onto the artistic scene of his locality while still a teenager. He was one of the most significant artists in Cuban philately. A painter, caricaturist, and draftsman, he also ventured into the field of music.

With a self-taught education, he showed from an early age a peculiar inclination toward the arts, and at only 12 years old he debuted as a singer and in 1948 he founded the trio Serenata with two other young friends from his hometown.

They participated in serenades, village festivals, popular and private parties free of charge, and he even created a song that identified him in his presentations.

In the course of his short but intense life, he successfully completed numerous works in different branches of art. Painting, music, photography, caricatures, graphic design, advertising design, postage stamp design and industrial product labels, and collaboration with different publications, constitute very significant elements within his work, all closely linked to the cultural activities of his people, where his first exhibitions were admired.

Due to his outstanding work in the field of graphic design, in 1956 he was selected to take a drawing course for engraving at one of the main American engraving houses and on March 17, 1958 he received the Certificate of Suitability as an Advertising Professor from the Professional School of Advertising in La Habana.

His body of work is extensive; in the 1950s alone he designed 37 postage stamp emissions, and it also encompasses industrial and graphic design, handicrafts, caricatures, drawings and some musical compositions.

Industrial designer of the well-known labels for "Cerveza Hatuey," "Ron Caney," "Jabón Blanco Oso," among other designs.

His extensive experience in the art of stamps qualified him to design the first postage stamp issued by the Revolution.

Some of the recognition received

His fundamental contribution is considered to be in the field of philately.

Gold medal at the International Philatelic Exhibition "Centennial" 1955.

The American magazine Life rated 3 of his stamps corresponding to the Homage to Felipe Poey section among the most beautiful in 1960.

He designed the first stamp issued by the Revolutionary Government, put into circulation on January 28, 1959.

He was an innovator at the Aluminum Factory to which he made important technical contributions.

Death

He died at age 46 in full creativity, in the year 1970. In the Municipality of San José de las Lajas. The Municipal Gallery of San José de las Lajas, a locality in the Province of La Habana, bears the name of this encyclopedic talent.

In the Municipal Museum of History of San José de las Lajas there is a representative sample of his work, but an important part of it remains in private collections, fundamentally that of his only daughter Zamira Acosta Musa. Important works of his are also preserved in the Masonic Lodge and in the Aluminum Factory "Leovigildo Sierra" where he carried out numerous and recognized innovations in favor of production at this facility, where he worked during the 1960s.

EXHIBITIONS
• Personal painting exhibition at the Lodge "Verdad" of San José de las Lajas on May 12, 1955, where he presented 84 paintings.

• Philatelic exhibition "Centennial" held at the Palace of Fine Arts from November 12-19, 1955 in honor of the Centennial of the First Cuban Postal Stamp, where he received a medal of recognition for the work done as a collaborator and articles of praise and recognition for his designs appeared in different publications.

• Collective exhibition at the Palace of Fine Arts from October 17-27, 1957 together with other members of the Association of Cartoonists of Cuba, where he presented two comic and adventure comic strips.

• Personal exhibition of caricatures held in December 1957 at the Society "La Fraternidad" of San José de las Lajas, with the presentation of 25 paintings of popular local personalities.

POSTAGE STAMPS
One hundred designs for different postal emissions carried out mostly in the years between 1955 and 1960, in which the commemorative stamps of the Centennial of the First Cuban Postal Stamp, the Bicentennial of the Establishment of the Mail in Cuba and the one dedicated to the scholar and naturalist Felipe Poey stand out for their beauty and variety. He also designed the first postage stamp issued by the Revolution, which constituted a tribute to the triumph of January 1st and the 106th anniversary of the birth of José Martí.

PAINTING
157 registered works including paintings and pictures from different stages of his life with a variety of techniques and themes, where oil paintings of landscapes and seascapes stand out. Some of these works were donated to the Municipal Museum collection but most are located in private collections.

GRAPHIC AND ADVERTISING DESIGN
Numerous advertisements created in the 1950s for different advertising firms in the capital, publicizing household appliances, home furnishings, clothing, medicines, etc.
Innovative labels designed on aluminum paper during the 1960s for different industrial products produced in the country: Hatuey beer and malt, Ron Caney, export lobster, Babyto soap, Guarina butter, Picker juices and others.

MUSIC
Three six-minute records from the SONOVOX Recording House corresponding to the year 1957, all in the possession of the family.