Cuban Graphic Designer Hector Villaverde Dies

Cuban graphic designer Hector Villaverde Afu, 2011 National Design Awar winner, died in this capital, the Cuban National Council of Fine Arts said on Friday in a statement.

According to the press release, after the creator's death, the Cuban artistic and intellectual community is mourning and convey its condolences and feelings to family members, friends and colleagues, to whom he made his creative work available.

Born in Havana on January 29, 1939, Villaverde Afu was one of the protagonists of Cuban graphic design in the 1970s and he is also recognized for his work as a teacher of several generations.

According to Virginia Alberdi, he much had to do with the fact that the posters stopped being seen as minor art or circumstances to become an object of aesthetic value by itself.

In addition, she added, his work was extended to other areas of design such as the identity of publications, including the magazines Revolucion y Cultura, and Cuba Internacional, and the literary collections of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC).

During his career, he received several awards, including the National Design Award granted by the National Office of Industrial Design (1991), the National Book Design Award (2000) and the Living Memory Award, for his detailed documentation of the history of Cuban design between 1959 and 1974.