Rene Mederos

Who was Rene Mederos?

Felix René Mederos Pazos was a prominent Cuban poster artist and graphic designer.

Mederos, a self-taught artist from Sagua la Grande, began work in a Havana printshop in 1944 and was appointed Chief Designer for Cuba's principal television station in 1959. In 1964, at the beginning of the new wave of Cuban graphic design, Mederos began creating his first posters as head of the design team of the propaganda organization Intercommunications.

In 1969 Mederos was assigned by DOR to travel to Vietnam to paint scenes of the war. He travelled to both North and South Vietnam along the Ho Chi Minh trail with the liberation forces, experiencing first-hand the brutal conditions of war and the courageous response of the Vietnamese people. The paintings were exhibited in Hanoi, and were subsequently reproduced as a screenprinted series which has been shown all over the world. Another trip in 1972 added to the body of work. Several of these images were reproduced in the United States as part of the anti-war and Cuba solidarity efforts and in Cuba as a set of postage stamps.