The Spanish Civil War as an Inspiration to Later Artists

The Spanish Civil War as an Inspiration to Later Artists

R.B. KITAJ (1932–2007), La Pasionaria, 1969, Oil on canvas, Private Collection

In 1939 the British Government formally recognised General Franco's Nationalist Government in Spain. Franco established an autocratic dictatorship, Francoist Spain, a totalitarian state of which he remained leader until his death in 1975, at which point the Spanish monarchy and democracy were restored. The philosophical and political issues raised by the Civil War continued to fascinate artists in the decades following the conflict.

The American artist R.B. Kitaj was a regular visitor to Catalonia in the 1960s and 1970s and created a series of paintings and prints investigating themes and subjects from the Civil War, such as his painting 'La Pasionaria' of the Republican heroine and orator Dolores Ibárruri whose slogan ¡No Pasarán! ('They Shall Not Pass') had become famous after the Battle of Madrid. Kitaj produced a number of screenprints featuring the covers of books published during the Spanish Civil War. Others such as the artist Ron King have returned to the imagery of Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ to explore modern conflict and political situations.

Helping them to Forget: Spanish Refugees and Prisoners

Helping them to Forget: Spanish Refugees and Prisoners

• 
  

ANNE ACLAND, Help them to Forget: Poster for the Basque Children's Committee, 1937, Off-set lithograph on paper, Courtesy of the People's History Museum  

Following the bombing of Guernica and other Basque cities in May 1937 the steam ship Habaña arrived at Southampton carrying 4000 Basque children and their teachers who were housed in tents in a refugee camp at North Stoneham in Hampshire. The lives of these children were memorably recorded in the photographs of Edith Tudor-Hart, a pioneer in British documentary photography. Groups of the Basque children were accommodated in hostels across the South of England including at Worthing, Hove and Lord Faringdon's home at Buscot Park in Oxfordshire. Over 400 remained in Britain after the war ended and stayed permanently.

After the victory of the Nationalists in April 1939, over 500,000 Spanish refugees fled over the border into France and were interned in camps. These inspired moving paintings of refugees by the child prodigy Ursula McCannell who had visited Spain in the months before the war broke out in 1936. Seeking to raise funds for the refugees and prisoners Henry Moore produced a screenprint called ‘Spanish Prisoner’. Due to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the print was never editioned or sold. However its imagery had a clear impact on his later work as one of the leading Official War Artists in the wider European conflict.

Amongst the Ruins: Guernica and the Threat of Bombing

Amongst the Ruins: Guernica and the Threat of Bombing

• 

ANONYMOUS What are you doing to prevent this?, November 1936- May 1937, Half- tone, lithograph on paper, Manuel Moreno  

The bombing of civilians in the Basque town of Guernica on 26 April 1937 by the German Condor Legion on behalf of Franco's Nationalist forces led the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso to paint his iconic painting 'Guernica' within a few weeks of the atrocity. Without doubt the most famous artwork to emerge from the Spanish Civil War, it was exhibited first at the Spanish Republican Pavilion at the Paris International Exhibition from July 1937, where it was visited by many British artists, and subsequently exhibited with the preparatory studies at the New Burlington Galleries in London in October 1938, and at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in January 1939 and then a car showroom in Manchester. The British exhibition was in aid of the Joint Committee for Spanish Aid and was organised by the Surrealist artist Roland Penrose, who had purchased the visceral 'Weeping Woman' directly from Picasso.

Picasso's powerful depiction of the terror of war provoked much discussion and had a profound influence on the imagery of British artists such as paintings by Merlyn Evans and sculptures by F.E. McWilliam and Henry Moore. The bombing of civilians in Spanish cities caused considerable concern amongst many in Britain. The artist John Armstrong depicted the ruins of bombed domestic buildings,  whilst in 1937 the German émigré Walter Nessler expressed his fears about  the bombing of London in his painting ‘Premonition’. These fears about aerial bombardment also led to the increased activities by the Air Raid Precaution organization (ARP) in the lead-up to the Second World War.

We Ask Your Attention! The British Surrealist Group Takes Arm

We Ask Your Attention! The British Surrealist Group Takes Arms





Photograph of the Surrealist artists Roland Penrose, James Cant, Julian Trevelyan and T.Graham wearing masks of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made by McWilliam in the May Day Procession, 1938The celebrated International Surrealist Exhibition took place in London in June 1936, immediately prior to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The history of the British Surrealist movement was subsequently closely linked with the conflict. In October 1936 the artist Roland Penrose travelled to Catalonia with the editor Christian Zervos and the Surrealist poet David Gascoyne to report on efforts to preserve Catalan art. Through his friendship with Pablo Picasso and other continental Surrealists Penrose played a central role in mobilising British artistic responses to the Civil War.

Although their artworks featured more subtle and dreamlike imagery when compared to the directness of the posters and paintings by their realist contemporaries, the British Surrealist Group issued a number of directly political Declarations on Spain calling for arms for the people of Spain (a criticism of the British Government’s non-intervention policy) and calling on people to ‘INTERVENE IN THE FIELD OF POLITICS, INTERVENE IN THE FIELD OF THE IMAGINATION’. At the 1938 May Day Procession in London, a group of Surrealist artists marched wearing masks of the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain that had been made by the sculptor F.E. McWilliam in order to protest British appeasement of the fascists. The artist S.W. Hayter, who ran the Atelier 17 in Paris served as a direct link to many European Surrealist artists and helped to arrange print portfolios to raise funds for the Republican cause, such as ‘Solidarité’, which featured British and European artists including Picasso, Joan Miró, André Masson and John Buckland Wright.

La Guerra Civil española en el espejo británico

PABLO GUIMÓN Londres 1 DIC 2014 -








Cartel de Joan Miró que puede verse en la exposición.


El verano de 1936 la artista británica Felicia Browne emprendió un viaje en coche del que nunca regresaría. Atravesó Europa con su amiga Edith Bone para asistir a la Olimpiada Popular que no llegó a celebrarse en Barcelona. Allí les sorprendió el alzamiento militar que dio origen a la Guerra Civil.


El 3 de agosto, cuando tenía 32 años, Felicia Browne se alistó en la columna Carlos Marx que salió de Barcelona en dirección al frente de Aragón. “Dices que me evado de las cosas al no pintar ni hacer escultura”, escribió Browne a una amiga. “Pero solo puedo hacer lo que es válido y urgente para mí. Si la pintura y la escultura lo fueran más que el terremoto que está sucediendo en la revolución, o si las demandas de las unas no entraran en conflicto con las del otro, pintaría y haría escultura”.


En Tardienta (Huesca), preparando un sabotaje en la línea de ferrocarril, fueron atacados por fuerzas fascistas en agosto de 1936. Un miliciano italiano resultó herido. Felicia Browne acudió a su rescate y los dos murieron bajo el fuego de una ametralladora. La artista fue la primera, de los cerca de 2.500 milicianos británicos que lucharon en el bando republicano, que cayó en el campo de batalla. La lluvia de plomo impidió a sus camaradas recuperar el cuerpo de la artista. Pero alguien rescató su mochila, donde guardaba el cuaderno en el que retrató por el camino a milicianos y paisanos. Aquellos dibujos acabaron expuestos en Londres en octubre de ese mismo año y su historia conmovió los artistas de un país que, junto con otros 26 Estados europeos, firmó el pacto de no intervención en la contienda.


La española fue una “guerra de poetas”, en palabras de uno de ellos, Stephen Spender. “El ensayo general para la inevitable guerra europea”, como la definió Ernest Hemingway, fue narrado desde el terreno por decenas de célebres escritores, muchos de ellos británicos, de George Orwell a W. H. Auden. Pero la lucha de sus compatriotas artistas, desde el frente o desde sus estudios, es menos conocida. Por eso resulta tan relevante la exposición Conciencia y conflicto: los artistas británicos y la guerra civil española, en la Pallant House de Chichester, al sur de Inglaterra.


“Todo el mundo conoce el Guernica de Picasso, pero si preguntas por la influencia del conflicto en los artistas británicos nadie sabe nada”, admite Simon Martin, director artístico del museo, que acoge una importante colección de arte británico el siglo XX. “Y el hecho es que sí marcó a toda una generación que se implicó, política y humanitariamente, en lo que pasaba en España y en lo que aquello significaba para Europa”.


Ahí está colgado el retrato a lápiz que hizo Felicia Browne de una campesina española, rescatado de la mochila sujeta a su cuerpo ya muerto. Desprovisto de todo sentimentalismo o ambición propagandística, como destacaría la reseña del New Statesman sobre la exposición donde se mostró el año de su muerte en Londres.


Aquella muestra la organizó la Artists International Association, y la siguieron numerosas exposiciones y campañas para recaudar ayuda humanitaria. En un intento de llegar a un público menos elitista que el de las galerías, muchos artistas británicos diseñaron carteles, pancartas y murales. Su naturaleza efímera, a diferencia de las duraderas obras de los escritores, es una de las razones de la comparativamente menor trascendencia de ese legado artístico. Pero algunos de esos documentos han sido rescatados para la exposición.


Cuando partía en dirección a España para conducir ambulancias en el bando republicano, el poeta W. H. Auden expresó un temor: "Solo espero que no haya demasiados surrealistas allí". No consta que los encontrara, pero sí los hubo. El lenguaje surrealista se reveló como un eficaz instrumento artístico para responder a los horrores de la guerra. De ello dan fe El prisionero español y El casco, un cuadro y una escultura de Henry Moore, o el Paisaje antropófago, de S. W. Hayter, que recurre a la destrucción de Numancia como parábola de la guerra moderna.


La muestra también rinde homenaje a la labor de agitación de los surrealistas en Reino Unido, documentando con fotografías y una máscara original la performance protagonizada en la manifestación del 1 de mayo de 1938 en Londres por los artistas FE McWilliam, Roland Penrose y Julian Trevelyan, que marcharon disfrazados del primer ministro Chamberlain realizando el saludo nazi. El propio Penrose, que viajó a Cataluña a finales de 1936, jugó un papel clave al ayudar a traer el Guernica a Londres, donde se exhibió a principios de 1939. Él mismo adquirió el cuadro Mujer que llora, del artista malagueño, una respuesta visceral a los horrores de la guerra que, cedida por la Tate, constituye otra de las joyas de la exposición.


Lo que trata de desmontar la exposición es el tópico del aislamiento de los artistas británicos en la primera mitad del siglo XX. Es el único ejercicio hasta la fecha de abordar con ambición el papel de los artistas de las islas en un conflicto que enseñó a una generación que el orgullo puede convivir con la derrota. Como resumió Albert Camus, “fue en España donde mi generación aprendió que uno puede tener razón y ser derrotado, golpeado, que la fuerza puede destruir el alma, y que a veces el coraje no obtiene recompensa”.

L’Affaire Reconquista de España » n’est pas une fiction

Nombreux documents d'archives, cotes et sources citées
http://espana36.voila.net/produc/LaffaireRE.html
Bibliographie complète et index

Sur demande : possibilité de conférences sur la Guerre d'Espagne, Exil et Résistance des Républicains espagnols en France

En 2009, près de 40 sessions ont déjà eu lieu
partout en France et en Espagne

contacter charles.farreny@wanadoo.fr

« L’Affaire Reconquista de España » n’est pas une fiction. C’est une histoire vraie, inédite, reconstituée ici à partir, principalement, de l’analyse d’archives policières et administratives méconnues ou inexploitées pendant deux tiers de siècles.

« L’affaire Reconquista de España » n’est pas un titre sorti de l’imagination des auteurs : ce fut l’appellation donnée par différentes autorités vichyssoises à une vaste opération répressive, qui éclata au grand jour en Lot-et-Garonne, au début de juillet 1942, à la suite de plusieurs mois d’investigations policières autour des réfugiés républicains espagnols.

Deux mois plus tard la répression rebondissait en région toulousaine et s’étendait à divers autres départements. L’affaire connut des prolongements importants pendant deux ans. Près de200 Espagnols y furent impliqués. Pendant de longs mois ils connurent la détention, la prison ou les camps. Une centaine furent déportés par les Allemands.Les auteurs Issus d’une famille de républicains espagnols, Charles et Henri Farreny agissent depuis des années au sein du mouvement associatif pour la récupération de la mémoire de l’exil républicain et notamment de la Résistance espagnole en France.

Would Kennedy say “I am a Catalonian” today? by Otto Ozols

Opinion: Would Kennedy say “I am a Catalonian” today?  

(2) Otto Ozols Thursday, November 6, 2014 

In thinking about European values and ideals, I wish to address all Europeans and particularly their political leaders. I particularly am addressing high-ranking politicians in Norway, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. I hope to touch their conscience and their courage. © AP/Scanpix Half a century ago, the distinguished American president John Fitzgerald Kennedy stood alongside the newly built and frightening Berlin Wall to speak prophetic words: “Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’. 

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’.” In his speech, Kennedy passionately defended the democratic principles and ideals of the free world, also harshly denouncing everything that was symbolised by the terrible wall. The Iron Curtain divided Europeans into two parts. Behind the wall were those who were imprisoned and whose freedom was lost. Those who remained on the eastern side of the Berlin Wall fell under the sway of Orwellian monsters. Doublespeak, which we know from George Orwell’s prophetic novel “1984” became the norm. Another objectionable Orwellian principle – this one from “Animal Farm” – also prevailed to the East of the Berlin wall – the idea that all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. 

The EU and Russia - how to obtain independence legitimately New ambassador of Spain presents letters of credence to Lithuanian president Today, half a century after Kennedy’s speech, there is reason to ask whether Europeans are building a new Berlin Wall. 

Is it not the case that political Doublespeak is once again floating across the continent as a terrible and poisonous fog, with people loudly proclaiming democracy, but in truth only observing it if it is advantageous for the political elites? As was the case in “Animal farm,” Europe today proves to be a continent on which “all nations are equal, but some are more equal than others”. Very recently Great Britain recognised the right of self-determination of the Scottish nation, allowing it to hold a democratic referendum to decide their future. 

Nearly all European leaders lauded this as a great achievement and triumph of democracy. Great Britain proved its wisdom, courage and trust in fundamental values of democracy. The Scots were recognised as a fully-fledged nation, one that has the same rights as other European nations do. At the same time, most European politicians choose cowardly silence when the same is demanded by Catalonians – an equally ancient, respected and large nation. 

It suddenly turns out that a principle that applies to one nation is not applicable to another. Once again – all are equal, but some are more equal than others. Less educated European politicians are making the base excuse that Scottish rights are based on special “British legislative traditions”. Apparently they have forgotten that the right of self-determination of nations is a long-standing, fundamental and universal principle of modern democracy. Indeed, it is the fundament of fundaments. 

European leaders have harshly denounced Putin’s brutality and cynicism, but when it comes to the Catalonians, they sink to the same level of cynicism. At the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, Vladimir Putin told surprised George W. Bush: “You have to understand, George, that Ukraine is not even a country.” In speaking about Catalonia, many European politicians have proven to be literally read to quote the neo-imperialist from the Kremlin. 

Similarly to poorly educated Putin, many politicians raise their eyebrows and wonder whether the Catalonian nation, which consists of more than 7.5 million people and has its own unique language, culture, identity and thousand-year culture, can really be seen as a “real” nation or country. 


With this attitude, they are literally pushing the Catalonians behind a 21st century “Berlin Wall,” with lovely words about fundamental democratic principles and nothing more than beautiful fiction. As was the case in the Orwellian Soviet Empire, defenders of democratic principles suddenly prove to be “criminals” and “fomenters of unrest.” Many people understand that this attitude is unfair and unjust. This is particularly comprehended by those politicians whose countries were born specifically because the principle of self-determination for nations – Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and many other countries. Otherwise they would be unhappy denizens of empires today – people to whom the fundamental principles of democracy do not apply. For this reason, I would like to pose this question the respected and democratic prime minister of Norway, Erna Solberg: Would you be the leader of a self-respecting country today if Sweden had used military force to take away the right of Norwegians to self-determination? Spain today is threatening Catalonia precisely in the same was as Sweden threatened Norway in the 19th century. 


Am I wrong in saying that the fundamental values of democracy apply to Norwegians at a level of 100%, while the Catalonians are not worthy of such principles? Madam prime minister, please answer these questions honestly! I would similarly like to pose a question to Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Alexander Stubb: Have you forgotten what Germany and Sweden told the new Finnish nation in 1917? 
They told you to talk to Russia first and foremost. Sweden didn’t care about what the Finns thought. 

Instead they awaited the decision of the new rulers of the old empire. You are keeping silent today. Are you not demonstrating equal levels of cowardice? It is not important what you Catalonians want. Go and talk to big Spain first. 

I wonder whether Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs, who has recently said that “Catalonia is an internal matter for Spain,” is not bring shame upon his predecessor – Latvia’s legendary first foreign minister, Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics. In the early 20th century, Meierovics struggled for Latvia’s de iure recognition in the world, and often he was faced with the question “Latvia? What is Latvia? It is an ancient part of Russia, and it is an internal matter for Russia.” 


Must Latvia’s foreign minister be equally haughty when talking about the Catalonian right to self-determination today? I would ask Estonian President Toomas Henrik Ilves where his courage and openness have gone. In 1993, his legendary predecessor, Lennart Meri, was in Paris, where he spoke these words: “Asking any nation to refuse its right to self-determination is a slap in the face of its self-assurance.” Today Ilves is silent in watching how Spain is doing precisely that in relation to the Catalonians. The world admired Estonia because of Lennart Meri, who was a noble, courageous and talented thinker and defender of democracy. 

Today Ilves just watches as Spain shamelessly slaps the Catalonians and Ilves pretends that he is not seeing that. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė: Can you be as courageous today as little Iceland was back in 1991 in recognising Lithuania’s right to self-determination without fearing the Soviet Empire? It is ironic that back then the Soviet leader was saying precisely the same thing that Spain is saying today – Lithuania’s right to self-determination is illegal. 


I might pose similar questions to the chairman of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, or to the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, but it does seem that they are deaf. When Martin Luther King delivered his legendary “I Have a Dream” speech, there were some 250,000 protesters in his audience. Quite recently nearly two million Catalonians joined hands to demand their right to self-determination, but European Union leaders remained deaf and apathetic. The dream of equality has been written into the smokestack of history. Apparently today’s leaders have nothing of the idealism and courage of men such as Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II, who destroyed the shameful “Berlin Wall”. They believed in democracy and renewed a truly free Europe – a Europe in which millions of other Europeans, including Angela Merkel from East Germany, also regained their freedom. 

On November 9, Catalonia will be holding a referendum on self-determination. Fully in line with the nauseating traditions of Orwellian Doublespeak, Spain has banned it. The Catalonians have called the referendum a survey, but it, too, has been banned. In 21st-century Europe, 7.5 million Europeans have lost their fundamental democratic freedoms. 

I believe that if there were a truly courageous politician in Europe today, then he or she would appear in Barcelona and, like John F. Kennedy, courageously declare: “I am one of you, Catalonians!” A self-respecting Europe has no room for double morals, cowardice and open betrayal of democracy. By betraying the Catalonians, the Europeans are betraying the holy principles of democracy that are the cornerstone of all Europe. 

This betrayal will be a crack in the glass, and once the glass is cracked, nothing can stop it becoming more unstable. If only I could change this situation by telling the Spanish government to put me in prison, but let the Catalonians have their vote! I have no real hopes when it comes to the prime minister of Norway, the president and prime minister of Finland, the presidents of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, and leaders of other countries to stand with me. Apparently they believe that the privilege of an independent country with the right to self-determination rests only with a few elect nations. 

Just like in Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. Otto Ozols, writer, Latvian, European.

Read more: https://en.delfi.lt/politics/opinion-would-kennedy-say-i-am-a-catalonian-today.d?id=66310078#ixzz3IGuRWiPl