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Architectural Presentation in Opaque Watercolor: Theory and Technique (Edición Revolucionaria, Instituto Cubano del Libro)
Book
Belonged to Mariela Payán, who used while studying Architecture in Havana's CUJAE.
Architectural Presentation in Opaque Watercolor: Theory and Technique (Edición Revolucionaria, Instituto Cubano del Libro)
Architectural Presentation in Opaque Watercolor: Theory and Technique (Edición Revolucionaria, Instituto Cubano del Libro) - Image 2
Architectural Presentation in Opaque Watercolor: Theory and Technique (Edición Revolucionaria, Instituto Cubano del Libro) - Image 3
Architectural Presentation in Opaque Watercolor: Theory and Technique (Edición Revolucionaria, Instituto Cubano del Libro) - Image 4
2026.9.1
This is a Cuban state reprint of a U.S. architecture textbook, produced under Edición Revolucionaria — a program established in 1965 to supply university and technical textbooks by reproducing foreign works without payment of reproduction rights, made possible by revolutionary Cuba's policy of treating educational materials as outside the international copyright regime in the wake of the U.S. embargo and Cuba's exclusion from normal publishing trade. Such editions are emblematic of how the Cuban state met the educational needs of an expanding student population during the 1960s–70s while cut off from Western commercial supply. The retention of the full original English text (rather than a Spanish translation) indicates the volume was intended for use by architecture students expected to read technical English. The 1972 printing coincides with UNESCO's International Book Year ("Año Internacional del Libro"), reflected in the "Libros para Todos" colophon, and bears the revolutionary year-slogan "Año de la Emulación Socialista." The frontispiece — a Welton Becket shopping-center rendering in suburban California — is a striking artifact of mid-century American commercial-architecture imagery circulating, via this reprint, inside revolutionary Cuba.
Mariela Payan collection
2026.9
Front cover, stamped: "Architectural Presentation." Title page: author and title as above; "eR" Edición Revolucionaria device; "INSTITUTO CUBANO DEL LIBRO." Contents opening: "Tomado de la edición 1968"; publisher address block "19 No. 1002, Vedado, Habana"; student dedication beginning "ESTE LIBRO, EN TUS MANOS DE ESTUDIANTE…" Frontispiece caption: "Shopping Center, Stonestown, California / Welton Becket, Architect." Final colophon: "LIBROS PARA TODOS / AÑO INTERNACIONAL DEL LIBRO"; printing statement dated "mayo de 1972," "Año de la Emulación Socialista." No handwritten owner's marks or accession stamps visible in the images provided.
Single bound volume, 158 pp., with color and black-and-white plates.
Chris Choate
Chris Choate
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
5/1972
Unidad Productora 06 "René Meneses"
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
5/1972
Maker/Attribution: Original text and renderings by Chris Choate (American architect, UCLA; known for watercolor renderings of Cliff May's ranch houses). Cuban edition published by Edición Revolucionaria, Instituto Cubano del Libro, Havana; printed at Unidad Productora 06 "René Meneses." Date: Cuban edition printed May 1972 (colophon); reproduced from the 1968 reprint of the work. (Original work: Reinhold Publishing Corp., New York, 1961.) Place: Havana, Cuba (19 No. 1002, Vedado). Edition: Cuban reprint edition, "tomado de la edición 1968"; one of the Edición Revolucionaria / "Libros para Todos" series.
Good
Mariela Payan
owner
Edición Revolucionaria
publisher
Chris Choate
author, illustrator
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
production, use
New Jersey
U.S.A.
North America
use
The original work is Chris Choate, Architectural Presentation in Opaque Watercolor: Theory and Technique (New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1961; 158 pp.), reissued 1968 — the edition from which this Cuban reprint was taken. The pagination (158 pp.) matches the original exactly, confirming a full facsimile-style reproduction. Edición Revolucionaria (est. 1965 under what became the Instituto Cubano del Libro in 1967) reprinted foreign textbooks without reproduction rights to supply Cuban higher education; this copy is a representative example and a useful teaching object for that history.