British Artists and the Spanish Civil War

Pallant House Gallery in Chichester is currently staging a superb exhibition on the response of British artists to the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), under the title 'Conscience and Conflict'. There are paintings, drawings, posters, banners, photographs, leaflets, flyers, even a historic film sequence for which the sound has unfortunately been lost.

Many of the leading artists and movements of the 30s are represented, including Henry Moore, Quentin Bell, and the Surrealists, as well as many that I had not previously come across. The painting above, of a demonstration in Battersea in 1939 in support of the Spanish Republic, is by Clive Branson.

'Spanish Prisoner, 1939', Henry Moore

Picasso's iconic painting 'Guernica' was shown in London in 1938, and several artists make reference to it in their own works. This exhibition includes a fabric collage re-working of the image, made collaboratively over a year or more in the course of a number of workshops held across the UK and elsewhere.

'Guernica', collaborative collage, 2013-4

Goya's 'Disasters of War' series was also shown in London in 1938, and some of the artists are clearly inspired by his images. A few of the Goya prints are on show here, and you can feel as well as see the influence.

"Bury them and shut up", Francisco Goya, 1810s

Amongst the historic exhibits are a couple of banners of the British Battalion of the International Brigades. The one shown below has been used for decades to drape the coffins at the funerals of old brigaders. The British Battalion was named after the Labour Party leader Clement Attlee, who became Prime Minister when a Labour Government was elected after the Second World War. The film shown in the exhibition has clips of Attlee welcoming brigaders at Victoria Station, on their return to the UK in 1938.

British Battalion banner, 1938

There was much on show that was new to me, including a series of paintings by Clive Branson of scenes in the nationalist prisoner-of-war camp where he was detained for several months in 1938. These are held by the Marx Memorial Library in London, but unfortunately I have not been able to find any examples online that I could link to here.

Alongside the major exhibition is a delightful show of a dozen prints by Terry Frost inspired by poems of Federico García Lorca. See A Match Made in Colour on his website for   the effect Lorca's poetry had on him, and on his art.

Moon rising, Terry Frost, 1989

La luna asoma

Cuando sale la luna 

se pierden las campanas 

y aparecen las sendas 

impenetrables.

When the moon comes out

church bells are lost

and impenetrable paths

appear

And finally, a nice surprise for me in the gallery's permanent exhibition - a few paintings of scenes in Spain by the East End Jewish artist David Bomberg, including this one of the bridge over the gorge at Ronda in Andalucía, where he lived for a year in the 1930s, not long before the outbreak of the Civil War.

Bridge at Ronda, David Bomberg, 1935

There's a dozen of his Spanish paintings in this series on the BBC's 'Your Paintings' site.

The exhibition runs until 15 February, and is possibly transferring to Newcastle later in the year, but is unlikely to be shown anywhere else as many of the items are on loan from other galleries and individuals, and will have to be returned. So if you're within reach of Chichester, get there if you can! 

Guernica and Guernica

Guernica

Sun 9 - Mon 10 May

Guernica (Gernika in Basque) is a small market town, upstream from Bilbao, but it has been a place of major significance for the people of the Basque Country since at least the mid-14th Century, with a communal and political rôle which belies its size.

Throughout history the Basques have always been fiercely independent. Over a period of a thousand years they resisted successive conquests by Romans, Arabs and other invaders, and from the Middle Ages through to modern times would only accept the authority of the rulers of Spain if their own laws and privileges (fueros) were respected.

For several hundred years each new King of Spain swore an oath to this effect under the symbolic oak tree of Guernica, a custom revived by the current King Juan Carlos some 30 years ago, during Spain's transition to democracy after 40 years of fascist dictatorship.

During the Spanish Civil War, Hitler's German Air Force, in support of the rebellion of the Nationalist forces under General Franco, bombed Guernica on market day, destroying most of the town and killing hundreds of people. This attack, on 26 April 1937, was the first time a civilian population had been the target of aerial bombing, and it caused shock-waves throughout the world.

The Spanish Government had asked Pablo Picasso to submit a work of art to represent Spain at the Paris International Exhibition later that year. He produced a massive, monochrome painting commemorating the bombing, an immensely moving portrayal of the horrors of war, which has become one of the world's best-known works of art.

Picasso's painting is currently housed in the Reina Sofía museum in Madrid, although many Basques feel it rightly belongs in Guernica itself. The picture heading this post is of a reproduction in ceramic tiles, displayed in a matter-of-fact way on a street corner in the town; the caption calls for the painting "Guernica" to be returned "to Guernica".

There are many other pointers in the town to its history and significance, including the Basque Assembly, with its stained glass depictions of Basque people and places, and several incarnations of the Guernica Oak in its grounds, and a nearby park with monumental peace sculptures by Eduardo Chillida and Henry Moore. There's also a statue to George Steer, the British journalist who was the first to report the bombing; it's on the pavement at a central junction so must be passed by thousands every day.

Over 45 years I have found my way to many parts of Spain, but this was my first visit to Guernica, and I'm so glad that we managed to include it in our journey this year.

Here's my Guernica slideshow.