To/from the Second Spanish Republic
International correlates and synchronies
Joan Miró. D´ací i d´allà. Journal, winter 1934
Type of activity: International Seminar
Dates: April 14 and 15
Place: Edificio Nouvel, Auditorio 200
Date: 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Entry: free entry (while seats available)
Credits: 1 academic credit for Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universidad Carlos III (Liberal Arts credit), Universidad Complutense and 2 credits in Universidad Rey Juan Carlos I.
Registration: only for students who require to validate the credit. Until April 1st, 2011 in programasculturales3@museoreinasofia.es)
CLOSED ENROLMENT DATE
The 30s is one of the chapters in contemporary Spanish history that has most exhaustively been exhumed. Although those years have always been part of Spain's collective imaginary in one way or another, only in the late 70s would the need arise to take a more scientific and systematic look at it. In the historiography of Spanish art, this process coincided with the final years of the dictatorship and, especially, with the early years of democracy, when a generation of specialists who were convinced of the pertinence of the neomarxist approach decided to rescue fragments from that period, primarily from the formal and political avant-garde, leaving a more global and balanced view "for later." After this parenthesis another period began, in which dozens of books, journals and exhibition catalogues have contributed to drawing a new picture of the Second Republic, a more complex, and therefore more complete vision. Three decades later this period is still underway.
Such a notable body of information allows certain conclusions to be drawn regarding the main theoretical foundations that shaped the times of the Republic. First of all, while socially and politically engaged work already had its own tradition, during the Republic this kind of art took on enormous importance as opposed to the other option, that of self-absorbed art interested only in questions of form, style and language. Secondly, artists chose – as they did in the rest of the Western world – between a position of total individualism and that of belonging to a collective, such as certain avant-garde groups, or to the State, an entity that for the first time promoted the interests of this intellectual and artistic elite in other countries. A third defining aspect of those years was the growing popularisation of art among all types of audiences (and not just among the uninitiated, but even among the totally uneducated) which gave rise to a series of actions as lucid as the university theatre group La Barraca or the Pedagogical Missions project, to mention just a few of the better known examples.
In short, the symposium aims to reveal the enormous variety and complexity of some of these debates, sharing the most recent research on aspects such as exhibitions, urban planning, journals, photography, relations with totalitarian regimes and their tragic outcome in the Spanish Civil War and World War II.
Program
From splendour to collapse: art and visual culture in the 30s
Thursday, 11 a.m.
Jaime Brihuega. Communicating vessels. Spain and the international art context during the Second Republic
Javier Pérez Segura. A new Spain? Cultural relationships between Spain and the United States
Other histories of modern architecture
Thursday, 5 p.m.
Carlos Sambricio. Lacasa in Dresden vs Jansen in Madrid: Housing and the city in 1930s Spain
Ara Merjian. Modernism at a standstill: the 30s in Spain, in the shadow of Purism and Metaphysical Painting
Resist or collaborate? The individual and the State
Friday, 11:00 a.m.
Paul Aubert. Cultural relationships between Spain and France (20s and 30s)
Alina Navas. From Italy to Spain. The controversial visit of the futurist Antón Giulio Bragaglia to Spain
Eyes that caress: the object as merchandise, fetish and image
Friday, 5 p.m.
Isabel García. The world in a piece of paper: luxury magazines (Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, New York)
Humberto Huergo. Art in the times of the window display
Participants
Paul Aubert is professor of Spanish Literature and Civilization at the University of Provence, Aix-Marseille I.
Jaime Brihuega is professor of Contemporary Art History at Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Isabel García is professor of Contemporary Art History at Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Humberto Huergo is a professor at Carleton College in Minnesota.
Ara Merjian is a professor at New York University.
Alina Navas is an independent art historian and researcher.
Javier Pérez Segura is professor of Contemporary Art History at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and in the Contemporary Art and Visual Culture master's programme offered by Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Museo Reina Sofía. He is the director of this seminar.
Carlos Sambricio is professor of the History of Architecture and Urban Planning at Madrid's School of Architecture.
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