Testimonials and References

We can provide professional references from museums and public organisations. However, due to the confidential nature of our work with private clients, we can only provide references from those collectors who are happy to share details of their personal projects on request.

Review for Designed in Cuba: Cold War Graphics at the House of Illustration 27 September 2019 - 19 January 2020 showcasing The Mike Stanfield Collection

Article on Mike Stanfield in the Financial Times 28 September 2019 and articles on the exhibition in the Observer, the Art Newspaper and The Times.

Time Out review 27 September 2019

5 out of 5 stars

There’s savagery and savage humour in this remarkable show of 100 posters and 70 magazines produced between 1966 and 1992 by Cuba’s state-run OSPAAAL, the snappily named ‘Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America’. For such a dry-sounding outfit, OSPAAAL’s house style was pretty far out. As Fidel Castro himself said,
‘Our enemy is imperialism, not abstract art.’

Free from a state aesthetic of the kind that dominated Soviet-bloc propaganda of the era, these Cuban designers were able to freestyle. They were young; many of them were women. The screen-printed pop-art colours of their work feel a million miles from Russia’s granite-chinned tractor-constructors. It’s no surprise that many of these artists came from an advertising background: you get the sense of a state taking the weapons of mass-market capitalism and turning them on their makers.

Cuba’s sheer proximity to the US (not to mention it being riddled with CIA) leads to a kind of uneasy double identity: while decrying the meddlin’, warmongerin’ Uncle Sam, there’s a definite cultural influence in the funky afros and even funkier graphics. There’s a wonky irreverence too. A 1969 image shows an American spaceman reaching towards an incredibly crappily made silver-foil moon. He’s standing on the backs of three black lads lying on the floor; the overall effect is like an unreleased episode of a communist ‘Blue Peter’. Whether it’s with a psychedelicised Che Guevara or a chain-snapping Angela Davis, these artists hammered their message home while reflecting a changing world with visual wit and humanist empathy. The Cold War never looked so hot.
https://www.timeout.com/london/museums/designed-in-cuba-cold-war-graphics-review