This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the national republic of Cuba. To usher in the centenary, Steven Heller and Vicki Gold Levi have collected hundreds of vintage graphics of Cuba from the 1920s to the 1959 revolution. Cuba Style recalls the days of glory when the island was a veritable resort colony for Americans and Europeans who came in search of Latino music and dancing, gambling, tropical romance, and the best beaches in the Americas.To advertise these attractions, Cubano graphistos combined elements of Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Bauhaus modernism, and Vegas-style kitsch in a distinctly Cuban sensibility. Cuba Style, the first book of its kind, reproduces a treasure trove of graphics from popular magazines, packaging, posters, and indigenous products such as alcohol and cigars.
It is a visual history of Cuba in its golden age as well as a wellspring of capitalist extravagance, seen here through the rare graphics of its extraordinary and now lost popular culture.
Touring the commercial graphic culture of pre-Castro Cuba, photography curator Levi and senior art director for The New York Times Heller present color reproductions of postcards, tourism advertisements, cigar boxes, music poster, hotel advertisements, and other items that combined graphic styles fr
