FRANQUI, Carlos (Las Clavellinas, Cuba 1921 - San Juan, Porto Rico 2010)El Circulo de Piedra

Copy No. 99/125

Carlos Franqui managed to attend university in the 1950s with great sacrifices. He then joined the Cuban Communist Party and worked in the underground, organising demonstrations and insurrections. He was editor of the underground periodical 'Revolucion' and head of the propaganda section of the Revolutionary Committee. After the victory of the revolution, however, he did not participate in Fidel Castro's government and the year after Ghevara's death (1967) he broke contact with Castro's regime and went into exile in Europe, and in particular to Italy where he was active as an art critic, writer and poet. The book was born with the intention of raising funds to help Franqui during his Italian exile.

"The 'Circulo de piedra' adventure was born thanks to my friendship with Carlos Franqui, who was introduced to me by Wilfredo Lam. I was in Cuba, in 1967, at the height of the cold war, I remember there were cannons under my hotel. All of Carlos' friends, including almost all the artists who would later form the Circulo de piedra three years later, were in Havana in '67 for the Salon de Mayo congress. I remember Jorn, Lam, Cesar, Tapies, my wife Rita Gallè, Calder, Adami, the critic Guido Ballo. On that occasion I met Fidel Castro, to whom I gave a copy of my edition made with Lam 'Apostroph' Apocalypse. Castro later organised an exhibition of graphics for me at the Casa de las Américas. On that occasion, I was given all the prints that went on Romeo y Julieta and Montecristo cigar boxes, prints that were still made in stone lithography, a lithography that continued a tradition of graphic art uncontaminated by the industry of cheap large print runs. What I am interested in remaining of 'Circulo de Piedra' is the common spirit of familiarity with Carlos Franqui, mine and all the artists, during the years of exile from Cuba. The folder was created without any specific commercial purpose, nor is there any union between the artists and a movement... It was also created to support Carlos economically and that is why I left him part of the print run. The folder is a project that also cost a lot of money for the artists involved, but the enthusiasm for our work led us to support the costs of the edition and each of the 15 artists was left a copy of the work, as a souvenir of the common project. Mirò was printed by Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Jorn by Bramsen in Paris, Calder I printed because he was in Milan for the exhibition at Studio Marconi; Vedova, Tapies, Adami, Lam and all the others were printed in Milan at Via Fara 9. The folder remains a rare example of direct printing on stone, which is too complex to do today due to the lack of pigmented and greasy inks of the time, and the correct graining of stone or lithographic zinc' (Giorgio Upiglio).

The work was presented on 17 October 1970 at Studio Marconi and Piccola Scala in Milan with Luigi Nono's concert 'Y entonces comprendio', of which each folder contains the record published by Ricordi.