Collection 1
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Room 206


Guernica and the 1930's


The rise of authoritarianism in Europe condemns the avant-garde due to its experimental and emancipatory nature. Fascism and Nazism imply a regression into tradition, understood as authority and enforcement, while the avant-garde shows its Utopian political nature. In the Spanish context, this tension is reflected in Guernica, and in the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 World Fair in Paris, during the Spanish Civil War, and on the brink of World War II. Joan Miró (1893-1983) starts to unbalance the boundaries between painting and anti-painting in a new symbolic and gestural language. The notion of sculpture changes with iron welding, a technique typical of industrial production, which Julio González (1976-1942), in collaboration with Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), would apply to his work, influencing, in turn, both Pablo Gargallo (1881-1934) and American artist David Smith (1906-1965).



image of Pablo Picasso. Guernica, 1937

Pablo Picasso. Guernica, 1937

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