Description

Our regular price for this authentic Cuban drawing by Enrique Lacoste is $149. Here we are offering a hand-signed drawing by award-winning Cuban graphic artist Enrique Lacoste (b. 1952), created for a series of graphics he made on the classic American cars that are ubiquitous on the streets of Cuba. This drawing shows a green 1954 FORD CUSTOM LINE DELUXE parked on a street in the historic La Habana Vieja (Old Havana) neighborhood. Habana Vieja is known for its narrow streets filled with Spanish colonial-era plazas, vibrant nightlife and restaurants, bars and hotels made famous by the American author Ernest Hemingway . This 9 by 11 inch drawing, created by Lacoste in Havana in 2017, focuses squarely on one of the thousands of classic American cars that are hired out to foreigners for pricey city tours but more commonly used as shared taxis by Cuban residents. These vintage cars are commonly known in Cuba as almendrones (almonds), a humorous comment on their shape. The marvelous drawings of Enrique Lacoste are well known on this Caribbean island; his graphics have appeared in many Cuban magazines and newspapers over the past three decades. The largely self-taught Afro Cuban artist also has written and illustrated books about Cuban historical figures. If you like his work as much as we do, we will be listing more hard-to-find drawings by Lacoste in the coming weeks and months. Look for more original classic American car drawings, as well as political cartoons and caricatures of Cuban and world political and cultural figures. You will find them in our eBay Store under the subheading Original Cuban Drawings. Overall condition of this drawing in this listing is good. As with many Cuban graphics, small imperfections can be expected. Buy with 100 percent confidence; any artwork purchased from the Cuban Poster Gallery on eBay can be returned for any reason within 30 days. About shipping : For buyers with an address in the United States, your purchase will be shipped FREE by USPS Ground Advantage or UPS with delivery confirmation. For international buyers (outside of the United States), eBay will calculate the cost of shipping and any required Customs duties and taxes. TITLE : 1954 Ford Custom Line Deluxe in Habana Vieja DESIGNER : Enrique Lacoste (b. 1952) MEDIUM: Drawing on paper, using permanent markers SIZE : 9 by 11 inches; 23 by 28 cm DATE: 2017 SIGNED: Yes ORIGIN : Havana, Cuba A few words about collecting the Cuban silk-screen movie posters that we also offer in our eBay Store: For more than 60 years, the Cuban Film Institute has been designing silk-screened posters for most every movie shown on the island, whether the films originated in Cuba, the United States, Brazil, Japan or Italy. In the midst of the Cold War 1960s and 1970s, many of the subtitled foreign films shown in Cuba came from the island nation's communist allies in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Vietnam and even North Korea. Unlike in the United States, where movie posters are often dominated by images of Hollywood stars, the Cubans assign a graphic artist to design an original piece of artwork for each film. These posters are widely recognized in graphic design circles as stylish works of art, handmade one color at a time and often under difficult circumstances (at various times, paint and even paper have been in short supply on the island.) Cuba's silk-screen movie posters are nothing less than museum pieces. Examples of Cuban poster art can be found in the permanent collections of museums across the globe from the Victoria & Albert in London to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as well as in prestigious institutions such as the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. Adding to their collectability, Cuba's movie posters are produced in relatively small numbers. Typically, a few hundred copies are made for each film, although the runs have been as low as 50. Responding to demand from collectors, the Cuban Film Institute has re-screened some of its more popular posters. That's why some posters created in the 1960s and 1970s began reappearing on the Caribbean island in the 1990s and 2000s. Further adding to their collectability, many of Cuba's vintage posters are imperiled. Although a few hundred copies may have been screened originally, relatively few have survived, due to the island's wet and humid climate, insect infestation, inadequate storage facilities in Havana and improper handling in Cuba and elsewhere. To us, these survivors are rare beauties, even those with obvious flaws. We are proud to have rescued hundreds of posters from almost certain extinction by storing them in an air conditioned, acid-free environment. We at the Cuban Poster Gallery offer both 1st and 2nd Edition posters to our customers on eBay and in our Washington D.C. gallery. We consider both to be collectible, and (in response to a question we often get) all of these posters were legally imported because the U.S. government exempts artwork from its economic embargo against Cuba. While the pricier originals are favored by some collectors, the 2nd Edition re-screens are also collectible because they were made in the same Havana workshop as the originals. Note that we never sell unauthorized reproductions that have been cranked out in print shops in the U.S. and Europe. To our eBay customers, we pledge to accurately describe the posters we list and price them fairly based on condition and scarcity. Have a question? Please don't hesitate to contact us. To view more distinctive Cuban graphics, we invite you to visit the Cuban Poster Gallery's eBay Store: http://stores.ebay.com/cubanpostergallery