Estampa Popular
The Irruption of Anti-Franco Reality in Art
The Long 1960s
Years of consumerism and mass culture, the Cold War and related fears, rockets, psychedelia, Vietnam, Cuba, Algeria, the power of the imagination and social movements that knew no borders: the revolutionary 1960s.
In reality, it was a period with events that broadly extended beyond the space of a decade, reaching the point referred to by historians as the “long sixties” and stretching from 1958 to 1974. As far as Spain was concerned, they would also be years of “economic miracle”, rural exodus, the arrival en masse of foreign tourists, the emigration of workers to Europe and the dawn of the Anti-Franco movement. In contrast to events up until that point, the critical voices of exile were joined by the voices of young witnesses of the Civil War who called into question the image of prosperity, normality and “peace” Francoism went to great lengths to impose.
In the beginning, opposition was embodied by the labour movement and university sphere with the support of the Spanish Communist Party (PCE). The realms of cinema, literature and theatre would soon take part in activities of underground opposition in the interior, while the visual arts, closely connected with them, would not take long to join in: beyond individual initiatives with limited scope, Estampa Popular was its earliest product.
Estampa popular
Estampa Popular was made up of a network of artists extending across Spain and also with international support and spokespeople. The first Estampa Popular group surfaced in Madrid in 1959, and the initiative would soon spread and garner support from a large number of intellectuals who were committed against Franco’s dictatorship and who found in these works the image of their own convictions. Thus, a network solidified to take in groups from Seville (1960), Córdoba (1961), Biscay (1962), Valencia (1964), Catalonia (1965) and Galicia (1968).
Despite the groups being inter-related, not all points in the network were connected, nor were the relationships between its components the same or with equal intensity. Estampa Popular cannot be viewed as a uniform body responding to one single participation model in the anti-Franco struggle and, in fact, each group worked with its own logic that shifted over time. The groups adapted to realities that were as diverse as the places in which they operated and the people comprising them. Although this hindered its homogeneity, it did allow for flexibility and for the inclusion of all people wanting to join the struggle.
Art Against Francoism
Retrieving the spirit of the Popular Front in the Spanish Civil War and “national reconciliation” promoted by the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) in 1956, there were no artistic or political norms to adhere to when joining Estampa Popular — the only common ground was opposition to the dictatorship.
Its aim was for art to contribute to awakening critical judgement and, therefore, participate in transforming the world. This fully constituted a declaration of intent at a time in which many, inside and outside the country, maintained that art was something individual and subjective and had little to do with politics. To exercise its goals, Estampa Popular artists opted to make affordable artworks that revealed, in a comprehensible form, the hidden face of Francoism and the system allowing it to prevail. Thus, its preference for graphic art and a “realism” that materialised in works, while generally preferring to utilise every possibility of figuration, did not exclude works related to abstraction. In fact, Estampa Popular “realism” referred less to formal aspects than to intentional and even ethical components. Claiming to be “realistic” had a clear strategic purpose that activated a whole framework of interpretation with broad cultural, social and political reverberations.
Circulation
Estampa Popular works were exhibited in Spain and in other countries such as Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Brazil and Argentina. These exhibitions created spaces that opened up the possibility of encounter and exchange, to express solidarity, debate, discover like-minded people and reinforce a sense of community belonging: the community of anti-Franco protestors. None of these activities were trivial when they took place in Franco’s Spain or made reference to it.
Thus, a context was created, a framework, to orient the interpretation of works, exhibitions and Anti-Franco groups. To this end, visually citing Picasso’s Guernica or reinterpreting one of Goya’s prints sufficed, as did choosing the right title or recalling verses by Miguel Hernández and Blas de Otero, including them in the print or reciting them in the exhibition room.
Yet it was not exclusively about exhibitions; Estampa Popular works were also reproduced in newspapers, magazines, books, posters, postcards, calendars, and so on. These were often underground publications or prohibited in Spain by the dictatorship, such was the case with the books and magazines of Ruedo Ibérico published in Paris and which, despite controls, managed to reach Franco’s Spain. Thus, the circulation of Estampa Popular images inside and outside Spain was more intensive than it appeared at first glance and was not limited to material promoted in exhibitions.
Denouement
Each Estampa Popular group brought their activities to a close at different junctures. The reasons for such closure were diverse and multiple: differences leading to divisions within groups, changing geographical locations hindering coordination, name changes and a shifting critical strategy, the burden of repression, arrests… At any rate, it seems that the start of a new decade marked a turning point in its history, leading some historians, and even artists, to assert that Estampa Popular disappeared either at the turn of the 1970s (or before) or with Franco’s death in 1975. However…
Different Estampa Popular exhibitions were organised in the 1970s. The artists involved operated in the Madrid scene and were far fewer than before, yet they had not let go of the name or transformative spirit. In 1978 they exhibited work in the Casa del Pueblo de Tetuán, associated with the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). In their flyer they declared:
Everything is different today, but not that different. Political circumstances have changed, but underlying them are social motivations that inspired the birth of Estampa Popular and still guide the main strands of its collective activity. Its conception of the production and distribution of the art object also remains.
Estampa Popular continues; it lives on among us.
Subsequently, an exhibition in the art gallery in Madrid’s Casa de Campo would bring together works and documentation provided by artists to represent all Estampa Popular groups. The show sought to take stock of its activity and warned that it was not trying to “revitalise an artistic movement developed under certain socio-political conditions” which were (now) considered different from the ones of that time. It was autumn 1981 and Guernica had only just arrived in Madrid from MoMA. In the meantime, the Spanish Constitution had been ratified, general elections held, the Ministry of Culture created through a comprehensive government agreement between the PSOE and PCE, and, since the municipal elections of 1979, left-wing parties had held office in the Town Hall of most Spanish cities (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville, for instance). There were also various coup d’état attempts, the most recent occurring on 23 February of the same year.
