EUGENE, ORE.- “Korda y el espíritu de la Revolución Cubana (Korda and the Spirit of the Cuban Revolution),” a new exhibition by internationally renowned photographer Alberto Fernando Díaz Gutiérrez, better known as Alberto Korda, or simply Korda (1928-2001) is on view at the University of Oregon’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Featuring a selection of some of the most iconic images that symbolize the ideals of the Cuban Revolution, the exhibition is on view through Sunday, July 21, 2019.

This group of vintage photographs includes one of the most reproduced images in the world—Korda’s portrait of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, titled Guerillero heroico, from 1960. Originally part of the photographer’s personal collection, these works are on loan to the JSMA from the Collection of Dr. Steve Pieczenik and Dr. Roberta Rovner Pieczenik and Family, Chevy Chase, Maryland. This exhibition is co-curated by Cheryl Hartup, Associate Curator of Academic Programs and Latin American Art, and UO undergraduate history student Savannah Evans.

“Alberto Korda constructed images of intimate trust based on seeing with his heart and feeling an image. Behind every photograph in the exhibition is a fascinating story that offers insight into friendship, respect, competition, the historic moment, and one’s perception of the past,” says Hartup. “We are grateful to Dr. Steve Pieczenik and Dr. Roberta Rovner Pieczenik and Family for lending to the JSMA this singular body of work by Alberto Korda, the most versatile photographer of his generation in Cuba.”

In the 1950s, Korda excelled as a publicist and fashion photographer at Studios Korda in Havana. In 1959, he changed his models from glamorous women to revolutionary heroes.

In Korda’s last interview, conducted in Havana in January 2001, he stated, “I have loved the beauty of women as much as the beauty of the men who led the Revolution. The beauty of those men is not only aesthetic but also moral.” From 1959 to 1968, Korda enjoyed the trust and respect of Fidel Castro and accompanied the leader on all his national and international travels, photographing major political events as well as significant stages in the Castro’s public and personal life.

“Korda’s photographs are powerfully historic and intimate,” says Evans. “These images offer the viewer the opportunity to consider the historical moments in which they were taken with a regard to how we remember and form questions about the Cuban Revolution today.”

Also featured in the exhibition are several prints published by Havana’s Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa, and Latin America (OSPAAAL), a testament to Korda’s enduring influence on artists and other art forms in Cuba.

“The JSMA recently received a large collection of Cuban silkscreen prints and posters as a gift to the collection. These help visitors see Korda’s famous “Che” photograph in the context of the revolutionary’s constantly evolving image over time,” says Hartup “Like Korda’s work, the prints synthesize aesthetic as well as Cuban ideals and history.”