Printing Solidarity:
Tricontinental Graphics from Cuba
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December 1, 2021 - March 12, 2022
Upcoming Events:
Panel Discussion: Stony Brook and the Global Sixties
Wednesday, February 23, 4-7pm
A panel on the history of the global sixties by Stony Brook faculty and graduate students,
followed by a roundtable discussion on social justice-oriented activism on the Stony Brook Campus
in the 1960s-70s amongst faculty with the most institutional memory. Who here at Stony Brook researches the world history of the 1960s and 1970s? What
kind of insights can we gain from their scholarly interventions? Join professors and
graduate students in a discussion of current and ongoing research on the global sixties
happening on our own campus. Q + A to follow.
Click here to learn more.
- Wednesday, February 9 at 2 pm
- Wednesday, February 16 at 2 pm, *also includes tour of Mis/Communication: Language and Power in Contemporary Art
- Thursday, February 17 at 1pm
- Tuesday, February 22 at 12:00 pm
- Wednesday, February 23 at 1:00 PM *also includes tour of Mis/Communication: Language and Power in Contemporary Art
- Wednesday, March 2 at 1 pm
Printing Solidarity: Tricontinental Graphics from Cubais an exhibition of global printed matter published in the 1960s-70s by the Organization of Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America (OSPAAAL), a cultural organization of artists and designers founded in 1966 in Havana. Presenting over 50 archival posters and magazines with strikingly colorful and geometric designs, Printing Solidarity offers a glimpse into the revolutionary aesthetics and agenda of this print collective.
The OSPAAAL came out of an intercontinental exchange within the global context of decolonization and the Cold War, when the nation-states that recently gained independence across the globe sent their representatives to Havana to discuss the anti-imperialist agendas and aesthetics of what they at the time called Third Worldism or Non-Aligned Movement. The colorful geometric designs of the printed matter defined the aesthetics of Tricontinental, a bi-monthly bulletin that contained news from across the world in multiple languages.
Cuban artists, as famous as Alfrédo Rostgaard, Raúl Martínez, and Gladys Acosta Ávila, designed a series of posters that were distributed for free as magazine inserts. Often featuring a compelling synthesis of graphics and texts, these posters evince the dynamic experiments in revolutionary aesthetics and the challenges of representing global solidarity across national borders.
Printing Solidarity is curated by Stony Brook University Art History PhD students Elise Armani, Amy Kahng, Daniel Menzo, and Sarah Myers, under the guidance of Assistant Professor Sohl Lee. The exhibition is produced by the Zuccaire Gallery in collaboration with the Interference Archive, a volunteer-based non-for-profit organization in Brooklyn, NY. The exhibition and programs are supported by the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook (HISB), Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS), the Center for Korean Studies (CKS), the Graduate Student Organization (GSO), and the Department of Art. The Zuccaire Gallery's 2021-2022 exhibition season is supported by a generous grant from the Paul W. Zuccaire Foundation, with additional support from the Friends of Staller Center.
Curated Playlist for Printing Solidarity: Tricontinental Graphics from Cuba
Listen along to a music playlist accompanying the exhibition, curated by Giovanni Bello and Matías Hermosilla, PhD Candidates in the Department of History. Link: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL90dQGkcOFs1_Ph43e8zYRgExlunTWE-4
Lecture: Interference Archive: Origins and Activation
Thursday, February 10, 2022, 2:30-4pm, on Zoom
Co-sponsors: The Humanities Institute at Stony Brook and the Zuccaire Gallery
Guest speakers from Interference Archive will discuss their collection of OSPAAAL materials currently featured in Printing Solidarity: Tricontinental Graphics from Cuba.
How can we use historical objects to engage with and learn from social movements of the past in our tumultuous present? How do we as today’s citizens maintain and activate the visual materials of these past movements? Founded in 2011 as a library, gallery, and archive of historical materials related to social and political activism, Interference Archive offers one viable model for tackling these questions. As an organization run entirely by volunteers, Interference Archive invites all community members to shape its collection and programming. The archive’s mission states: “We work in collaboration with like-minded projects, and encourage critical as well as creative engagement with our own histories and current struggles.”
Speakers: Josh MacPhee, co-founder of Interference Archive and Justseeds and Jen Hoyer, Electronic Resources and Technical Services Librarian at CUNY City College of Technology. Moderators: Daniel Menzo, PhD Candidate in the Graduate Program in Art History and Criticism and Sohl Lee, Assistant Professor in the Department of Art.
Lecture: Visual Citations and Techniques in Tricontinental Graphics. Video Recording
Thursday, February 3, 1:30-3pm
Existing scholarship on posters by OSPAAAL (Organization of Solidarity of the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America) has focused on the group’s intentions (to inspire global solidarity, for example) and the posters’ trajectories of circulation (such as via the larger print culture and international media circuits). Less attention has been given to visually analyzing the images and symbols within the individual poster designs. For this event, three faculty members of the Department of Art at Stony Brook University will be in conversation to explore the visual references and print techniques utilized by OSPAAAL through a close examination of the posters on view in Printing Solidarity: Tricontinental Graphics from Cuba. In their attempt to represent cultures outside of Cuba, how did Cuban artists gather source images like those of West African figurines and a North Korean winged-horse statue? What can we learn from identifying different printing techniques employed by these artists?
Speakers: Barbara Frank, Professor in African and African Diasporic Art, Sohl Lee, Assistant Professor in Modern and Contemporary East Asian Art, and Lorena Salcedo-Watson, Professor of Practice and a Master Printer.
Wednesday, December 1
Guest Lecture by graphic designer Scott Starrett. Video Recording
Panel discussion with the curators. Video Recording
Friday, October 22, 3pm
Zoom Lecture by Lincoln Cushing, artist, archivist and author. Moderated by Eric Zolov, History Department. Sponsored by Humanities Institute of Stony Brook, Latin American and Caribbean Studies and Zuccaire Gallery.
Thursday, Sept. 30, 3pm
Zoom Lecture by Solana Chehtman, Director of Civic Programs at The Shed in NYC. Moderator: Sohl Lee, Art Department.
Sponsored by the Humanities Institute of Stony Brook, Zuccaire Gallery and the Art
Department.
Read a review of Printing Solidarity in the Brooklyn Rail: Art of the Cuban Revolution: Printing Solidarity, Viva Cuba Viva!, Líneas Vitales
Images:
Day of Solidarity with the Congo, February 13, 1972, Alfrédo Rostgaard
Guatemala, Olivio Martínez, 1968
Untitled (Che), 1969, Alfrédo Rostgaard, offset, 66 x 39.5"
Below: Printing Solidarity at the Zuccaire Gallery
