It is commonplace to state that the most restless draftsmen of ours, their works registered within the specific field of advertisement and graphic the design, were who contributed to visually enrich the pages of Cuban illustrated magazines, especially Social and Carteles, where not a few of their advertisements, illustrations and covers outstand. But it is good to agree that they were not the only ones.
(…)To begin with, a figure whose stamp has been little studied in the Cuban art of those years is Mexican Miguel Covarrubias, of inevitable reference when evaluating the interest on blacks as subject matter which increased among some Cuban draftsmen towards the end of the twenties.
When comparing the images of his work with those of many of the Cuban draftsmen who dealt with the topic, we notice some proximity impossible to ignore in the analysis of the treatment that was given to it in those years, something that would deserve a more thorough study.
Another figure in this decade that should also receive attention is Emilio Amero, Mexican too. (…) Enough it to review the advertisements by Amero for Jardín Milagros and for El Encanto Department Store, as well as some Tipos neoyorquinos (New Yorker Types) published in those years, to notice the links existing between his proposals and some designs from the Matanzas draftsman.
It is true that between 1928 and 1930, in Carteles and, above all, in Social, the designs with a cubist inspiration − or simply with a geometrical slant − by Amero and Acosta, increased. But that was a phenomenon in which not only other Cuban artists took part. Some Europeans living in Havana for several years, whose presence cannot go unnoticed when talking about the introduction of modernity in Cuban art, also did. (…)
