Conscience and Conflict: British Artists
and the Spanish Civil War
Pallant House Gallery
Until 15 February then touring to
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle 7 March – 7
June 2015
Amazingly this impressive exhibition is the
first of its kind in the UK to focus on British artists’ contribution in
support of the Spanish Republican government in its struggle against General
Franco’s fascist coup in 1936. It is surprising that no one had attempted this
before, because support for the Republican Government at the time was
undoubtedly the last major mobilization of working people and artists in
support of any cause, in this case that of the democratically elected
republican government of Spain and at the same time combatting the rise of
totalitarianism in Europe. If the example of the thousands of international
volunteers who went to fight in Spain and the passion with which so many
artists lent their support had been followed we may have avoided the inexorable
rise of Hitler and the horrors of the Second World War.
Simon Martin, the curator of the exhibition,
and the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester should be warmly congratulated on
mounting such a fascinating, informative and deeply moving exhibition. They
have managed to bring together an amazing collection of works, from Picasso to
Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, from Clive Branson to Victor Pasmore, Frank
Brangwyn and R.B. Kitaj. And works on display are not just any old second-rate paintings
or sculptures but carefully selected and representative works by the artists
involved, many hardly seen in public before.
In its breadth of styles, from formalism to
surrealism, constructivist to expressionist and social-realist, the exhibition
demonstrates how this campaign inflamed the passion and commitment of artists
who may have been poles apart in terms of their artistic sensibilities and goals,
but were united in seeing the struggle to support Spain’s republican government
for what it was: a turning point in European history and a decisive battle to
determine whether the continent would move forward on the basis of democracy or
be swamped by barbarism.
The coming together of so many leading
artists and the thousands who actually volunteered to fight, as well as the
hundreds of thousands who attended rallies and donated food and money, was in
sharp and shameful contrast to the attitude of western governments and our
political elites who, under the guise of neutrality and non-intervention,
sabotaged the efforts of the democratically elected Spanish government to win
support and defeat fascism. The consequences, as we well know, were
apocalyptic.
Apart from the art works themselves, the
accompanying texts are extremely informative and devoid of the usual reactionary
prejudices or retrospective patronization of the movement in support of Spain.
They also pay due respect, without pulling any punches, to those in the
Communist and Labour Parties who were in the forefront of that campaign.
This cohesive and meticulously mounted
exhibition provides a salutary history lesson through the medium of art, as few
manage to do.
The exhibition also includes the showing of
an evocative short documentary made by Ivor Montagu at the time, sadly with its
sound track missing. It eloquently conveys the hopes, the heroism and atmosphere
of the period with its black and white, ‘cinema verité’ imagery. It incudes shots of a mass rally addressed by Clement
Attlee, and of Harry Pollit, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, talking
to International Brigaders in Spain itself and the first volunteers, smiling
and waving, as they march, full of hope, along the platform of Liverpool Street
station on their way to France and bound for Spain.
It is impossible to single out any individual
work from this rich collection of cartoons, paintings, sculptures, posters,
photos, banners, pamphlets and documents, but I will mention several as
examples of the riches in store for those who make the effort to visit the
exhibition.
There are heart-wrenching photos by the talented
Austrian-born photographer Edith Tudor-Hart of refugee Basque children fleeing
the fighting and arriving in Britain – a country they have never visited, don’t
know and whose language they don’t speak.
A series of sensitive charcoal drawings of
militia men and women by Felicia Browne have a particularly emotional force
when one knows that they were the last works of art completed by this
Slade-trained and very talented artist. She was one of the first of the
international volunteers to fight in Spain, and one of the first, and certainly the first woman,
to be killed, on 25 August 1936, at the Aragon front near Tardentia. She was a
member of a band of raiders that attempted to dynamite a fascist munitions
train. The party was itself ambushed and Browne was shot dead while assisting
an injured Italian comrade.
There
are several paintings by Clive Branson, like Felicia, a Communist Party member,
who chose a straightforward, socialist-realist style for his brightly coloured
paintings. They may not represent everyone’s favourite artistic style, but they
certainly powerfully reflect the social and economic relations of the period.
He also completed some fine drawings of a number of his fellow International Brigaders
in Spain. Edward Burra surreal painting, ‘War in the Sun’ (1938), represents a
totally different take on the issue.
There
is a moving if somewhat sentimental poster printed from a lithograph by Frank
Brangwyn and designed for the Spanish General Relief Fund, with its central stark
figure of a working class mother hugging her baby and surrounded by other
desperate children tugging at her skirts; the allusion to religious paintings
of the Madonna and child is deliberate.
Edward
McKnight’s haunting poster appealing for medical aid to be sent to Spain utilises
a copy of the gaunt head of a saint by El Greco to haunting effect. Other, powerful posters in the show are by anonymous artists.
Many
of the artists represented in the exhibition belonged to the Artists
International Association which brought together hundreds of British artists
who were determined to use their art in the struggle against fascism.
Also available is a wonderful and richly
illustrated catalogue, with text by curator Simon Martin and with an excellent
introduction by acknowledged expert on the Spanish Civil War, Paul Preston.
No comments:
Post a Comment