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.