Juan David

This rare and striking original caricature of Che Guevara, signed and dated “David ’61,” was created by celebrated Cuban caricaturist Juan David at the height of the early revolutionary era. Measuring an impressive 10.75 x 13.75 inches, this mixed-media artwork captures one of the most recognizable political figures of the twentieth century through the sharp wit and expressive visual language of Cuba’s most renowned cartoonist.

Executed only two years after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, the drawing presents Che Guevara with exaggerated features—arched eyebrows, a sly revolutionary grin, and a cigar clenched between his teeth—transforming the legendary guerrilla commander into a bold graphic symbol of the revolutionary spirit that swept across Cuba and the world during the early 1960s.

The artist Juan David was widely recognized as one of the most important Cuban cartoonists of the twentieth century, whose caricatures appeared in major Cuban publications and became part of the visual culture of the revolutionary period. His work is celebrated for its confident line, theatrical exaggeration, and ability to capture the personalities of political and cultural figures with remarkable immediacy.

This artwork therefore represents a rare convergence of two major historical figures:

• Che Guevara — the Argentine-born revolutionary whose image became one of the most powerful political symbols of the twentieth century and an enduring icon of global revolutionary movements.

• Juan David — the leading Cuban caricaturist whose drawings helped shape the visual language of Cuban satire and political commentary.

The result is a historically charged portrait, created during the formative years of revolutionary Cuba, when Guevara himself was one of the most influential figures in the new government alongside Fidel Castro.

Original caricatures of Che Guevara created during the early revolutionary period are exceptionally scarce, and works by Juan David are rarely encountered on the market. This piece stands as both a political artifact and a work of graphic art, embodying the revolutionary mythology of the early 1960s through the hand of Cuba’s foremost caricature artist.

Artist information:

In 1931, Juan David displayed his artwork for the first time at a photography shop, La Moderna, in Santa Clara. The exhibition included thirty caricatures that demonstrated the strong influence of Salvadoran caricaturist Toño Salazar on David's work. His anti Machado activities soon forced him to leave Santa Clara for Havana in 1935, where he worked with such magazines as Isla, Resumen, Mediodía, Social, Patria, Grafos, and Bohemia and continued to exhibit his work. For his caricatures of individuals, Juan David earned first-place prizes from the Salón de Humoristas of Cuba eight times from 1939 to 1953 and received many other awards for his work. Through the 1950s and 1960s, David continued to publish his caricatures, primarily in Bohemia and Cuba internacional. Nowadays, the Salón Nacional de Caricatura Personal “Juan David” awards several prizes for the best caricatures of individuals.