La Historia Oficial – Limited Edition Silkscreen Poster
US$ 450.00
Designed by Nelson Ponce (Cuba).
Serigraph on paper.
Edition of 50 (2017).
50 x 70 cm (19.5 in x 27.5 in).
- Free shipping to Canada & USA
This limited-edition La Historia Oficial poster is a hand-pulled silkscreen print by celebrated Cuban graphic artist Nelson Ponce, created in 2017 as part of a 50-piece edition. The artwork pays homage to Luis Puenzo’s 1985 film, the first Latin American film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, by distilling its themes of historical trauma and maternal search into a haunting symbolic image.
Rather than reproducing the film’s visual style, Ponce draws upon the stark iconography of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, the Argentine women who protested against the forced disappearances during the dictatorship. His use of the white headscarf, stylized against a deep red backdrop, evokes both mourning and resistance, reframing the political urgency of the original narrative in purely graphic terms. A flying stork—an image traditionally associated with childbirth—casts a chilling contrast, pointing to the state’s systematic abduction of children born in captivity.
Printed on heavyweight archival paper (50 × 70 cm / 19.5 × 27.5 in.) using traditional serigraphy, the La Historia Oficial poster exemplifies the bold conceptualism of Cuban film posters, which prioritize metaphor and commentary over commercial appeal. Since the 1960s, this design tradition sustained by ICAIC (the Cuban Film Institute) has garnered international recognition and was formally inscribed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2023.
Each poster is signed and numbered by the artist.
Nelson Ponce (b. 1976) is one of Cuba’s leading graphic designers, known internationally for his contributions to the revival of Cuban poster art. A graduate of the Instituto Superior de Diseño (ISDI) in Havana, Ponce has developed a distinct visual style that blends political commentary, experimental typography, and comic-inspired illustration.
His work has been exhibited in museums and biennials around the world, and he has played a key role in defining the aesthetics of contemporary Cuban visual culture. Ponce is especially celebrated for his silkscreen prints that reinterpret Cuban cinema, literature, and revolutionary iconography with both wit and formal rigor.
La Historia Oficial (The Official Story), directed by Luis Puenzo, is a landmark of Latin American cinema. Released in 1985, the film was the first Argentine feature to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Set during the final years of Argentina’s military dictatorship, the film follows a history teacher who begins to suspect that her adopted daughter may be the child of a desaparecida—one of the many victims of state terror. The narrative probes the silences and distortions of official memory, offering a poignant reckoning with personal and political complicity.
This La Historia Oficial poster by Nelson Ponce echoes the film’s themes of repression and revelation, rearticulated through the powerful idioms of Cuban poster art.
