Unknown Constraint(s) on Use: This work may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Use of this work beyond that allowed by "fair use" requires written permission of the copyright holder(s). Responsibility for obtaining permissions and any use and distribution of this work rests exclusively with the user and not the UC San Diego Library. Inquiries can be made to the UC San Diego Library program having custody of the work. Use: This work is available from the UC San Diego Library. This digital copy of the work is intended to support research, teaching, and private study.
Description
DP269.15.B385 1936 In December 1937, the Republican forces attacked the Nationalists along the latter's eastern front in an effort to seize the town of Teruel. This attack met with an immediate Nationalist counteroffensive, in which the Republican army, lacking war material and debilitated after its efforts at Teruel, was pushed back toward the Mediterranean coast. Despite the many arbitrary executions carried out by their officers, most of the Republican divisions fell into chaotic retreat. As one soldier put it: "Terror from enemy attacks from the air was greater than that imposed by the pistols of our own officers." By April 18, 1938, Franco's forces held a forty-mile band of coastline to the south of Barcelona, cutting off Catalonia from the rest of Republican Spain. Although this poster is undated, the territory it depicts being defended indicates that it was produced during the Nationalist counteroffensive or in its immediate aftermath, in the spring or summer of 1938. In the picture, the Republican soldiers stand in readiness behind a trench, awaiting the enemy's attack. The ominous smoke in the immediate background creates the impression of imminent danger, an impression reinforced by the map emerging from the smoke, showing the Republic's retreating lines of defense. The caption is a call by the Spanish Communist Party PCE (Partido Comunista de España) for the Republican troops to dig in and prevent what was fast becoming a complete rout. The artist, José Bardasano (1910-1979), was the child of Madrid working-class parents. A largely self-taught artist, the young Bardasano was working as an artistic director in an advertising agency when war broke out in 1936. Already a member of the communist-controlled JSU (Juventudes Socialistas Unidas), Bardasano immediately established a workshop with two colleagues and produced numerous propaganda prints and posters for the Communist Party. In 1937, Bardasano and his wife, the artist, Juana Francisca, moved to Valencia, where they continued to produce propaganda posters. At the end of the war, Bardasano and Francisca spent some time in a French concentration camp, after which they took exile in Mexico. Here Bardasano formed the Mexican Fine Arts Circle with a number of other Civil War exiles and Mexican nationals. In 1960, he returned to Madrid. Unlike the Anarchists, whose propaganda emphasized the revolutionary aspect of their struggle, the Communists pushed only one message: victory in war, a victory that could only be achieved through subordinating idividualism to group discipline. For this reason, the soldier in the majority of communist posters is a rigid, angular figure-a sterile symbol of strength. In contrast, Bardasano's figures are often realistic and vulnerable. Soldiers in a trench with rifles and backpacks in foreground; map with cities of Fraga and Lerida indicated in right background Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego, La Jolla, 92093-0175 (https://lib.ucsd.edu/sca) Barcelona?, Partido Comunista de España (sp)
Type
image
Format
1 print (poster) : lithograph, green ; sheet 100 x 71 cm
Form/Genre
Propaganda-Spain-1938. Posters-Spain-1930-1939.
Subject
Anti-fascist movements--Spain--Posters Spain--History--Civil War, 1936-1939--Posters Propaganda, Communist--Spain Spain--History--Civil War, 1936-1939--Propaganda Political posters, Spanish War posters, Spanish Propaganda-Spain-1938 Posters-Spain-1930-1939
If you're wondering about permissions and what you can do with this item, a good starting point is the "rights information" on this page. See our terms of use for more tips.
Share your story
Has Calisphere helped you advance your research, complete a project, or find something meaningful? We'd love to hear about it; please send us a message.
