Eduardo Muñoz Bachs (1937–2001) was a Cuban

poster artist ''Affichiste'' is the French word for a poster artist or poster designer, a graphic designer of posters. Etymology The name first appeared around 1780, but with a different meaning. It meant one involved in a poster's production and distributi ...

and

comics artist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and g ...

. He was born on April 12, 1937, in

Valencia, Spain Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area also ...

, but moved to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

with his parents in 1941. In 1960, with no formal training in

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

, he made the first poster for the ''Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematograficos'' ( ICAIC) that was founded shortly after the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cou ...

to produce and promote Cuban films. The association with ICAIC lasted for a lifetime, and Bachs made over 2,000

movie posters A film poster is a poster used to promote and advertise a film primarily to persuade paying customers into a theater to see it. Studios often print several posters that vary in size and content for various domestic and international markets. The ...

for the institution. In his posters, the human figure, the face, or the entire body, are predominant and recurrent. Although colors are eye-catching and wide-ranging, they are never shocking. The drawing with childish and comic features and hand-made calligraphy define a large part of Muñoz Bach's poster for the ICAIC, creating a unique style within the Cuban poster design of the half of the 20th century and serving as inspiration to notable contemporary Cuban poster artists such as Fabián Muñoz, Nelson Ponce and Erick Ginard. He is counted among the greatest Cuban poster designers - many times nicknamed The Cuban Poster Master of All Time -. His work contributed like no other to the international admiration that colorful Cuban posters enjoyed in the 1970s. Muñoz Bach's work also included animation and children's books illustration, illustrating more than fifty texts throughout his life for renowned Cuban authors such as

Dora Alonso Dora Alonso (born Doralina de la Caridad Alonso-Perez on December 22, 1910, in Maximo Gomez, Matanzas, Cuba – March 21, 2001, in Cuba) was a Cuban journalist and writer who worked in both print and radio. She wrote novels, short stories, poetry, ...

. In his role as an illustrator of children's books, he breathes a dose of naivety, fused with light-hearted humor and intelligent satire. Muñoz Bach himself expressed: "''Illustrating a children's notebook represents an artistic liberation that demands an overflow of ideas from me; He invites me to equate myself with the boy's fantasy''". He also ventured into the world of comic strips. With scripts by Félix Guerra, Bachs made several comic series for Editorial Pablo de la Torriente in the 1980s, most notably El Cuento, a collection of ironic fables. His foundational and majestic work was recorded in the documentary memory of the film El cine y yo, by Cuban director Mayra Vilasís.

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1937 births 2001 deaths Cuban artists Cuban comics artists Cuban poster artists Spanish emigrants to Cuba {{LatAm-comics-creator-stub

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