Surrealism and the Spanish Civil War

Abstract

How might artistic practice offer unique insight into the cataclysmic debacle of war? Surrealism and the Spanish Civil War plumbs this provocative question through an ambitious account of a pivotal period in European cultural history. The book focuses on the relation between artistic endeavor and politics during a period of social crisis. By scrutinizing the widely varying responses to the Spanish Civil War in the work of Miro, Dali, Caballero, Masson, and Picasso, the author investigates Surrealism's efforts to bridge the divide between political thought and political act. Robin Adele Greeley examines such central works as Miro's Still Life with Old Shoe and Dali's Autumn Cannibalism in the context of contemporary works and historical events. She also examines such topics as Surrealism's flirtations with fascism, the movement's relations with the Communist Party and the Popular Front, and the distinct development of Spanish versus French Surrealism. She concludes with an in-depth discussion of Picasso's Guernica.