Madrid 1937 (Aviones negros) (Madrid 1937 [Black Aeroplanes])

On the second floor of the Spanish Pavilion of 1937, a selection of works was displayed which manifested intentions of propaganda to condemn the harrowing situation of war. Although different artistic currents co-existed, realism was the central trend and deemed more in line with the Pavilion’s propaganda aims. One of the most successful works was Madrid 1937 (Aviones negros) (Madrid 1937 [Black Aeroplanes]), in which its creator, the artist Horacio Ferrer, cited, as did Pablo Picasso, the image of women fleeing with their children in their arms. Nevertheless, the chosen language could not be more at variance with Guernica. Ferrer, who trained in Italy, drew from the precise and impersonal style of drawing from New Objectivity coming out of Germany, also sharing its sense of social critique. Further, the artist included a reference to the protagonist of a historical painting, the French public were well acquainted with: Marianne from La Liberté guidant le peuple (Liberty Leading the People, 1830), by Eugène Delacroix, subverting it in this painting with the mother calling up to the sky to lament the bombings.



Raúl Martínez Arranz