A Federation of Cassandras

A Federation of Cassandras How American Intellectuals tried to Save the Spanish Republic Alexander Calder, Mercury Fountain, and Picasso’s Guernica at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris, 1937 Inge Gerrebrands Student no: 10411194 Thesis Supervisor: prof. dr. R.V.A. Janssens Master Thesis American Studies University of Amsterdam July 01, 2019 Table of Contents Introduction 3 1. The American Political Reaction to the Spanish Civil War 11 2. The American Cultural Response to the Spanish Civil War 24 Conclusion 52 Bibliography 58 2 Introduction Pablo Picasso’s Guernica first came to New York in 1939 after touring Scandinavia and England. Picasso had been commissioned by the Spanish Republican government to paint a mobilizing piece for the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris that would get the world’s attention for the disastrous Civil War that had been taking place in his native Spain since 1936. Picasso had been uninspired for a long time after accepting the government’s commission, but eventually finished his masterpiece in a little over a month after finally finding inspiration in the horrific bombing of civilians by German Nazi forces in the small Basque town of Guernica. Picasso’s iconic work, accompanied by many other Spanish artworks depicting the horrors of civil warfare, did receive the international attention that the Spanish public art commissioners had hoped for during the World Exposition. As France, England, and the United States had neglected to formally support the Spanish Republicans, the deposed Spanish government embraced the Exposition Internationale as an opportunity to cry for help. Alexander Calder was the only non-Spaniard contributing to the Spanish Pavilion with Mercury Fountain. Encouraged by his friend Joan Miró Calder designed the political artwork explicitly calling attention to the situation in Almadén with the Spanish town’s name in brass wired letters towering over the poisonous fountain filled with quicksilver. Almadén was economically important for the Spanish Republic, because it was home to a very lucrative mercury mine, but it was under siege by Franco’s Rebels in 1937. Calder’s contribution was an enormous success at the Exposition Internationale where visitors would throw coins into the liquid mercury. The money was gathered daily and directly donated to support youthful Spanish war victims.1 Calder was a continuous supporter of the Spanish Republic, most notably by welcoming Spanish refugees to the United States. He even took the famous director Luis Bañuel and his family into his home, enabling Bañuel to continue making his propaganda films for the Spanish Republican Cause in the United States.2 Both Mercury Fountain and Guernica were extremely impractical artworks to travel, respectively because of their chemical composition and size. Still, the American Artist’s Congress brought Guernica to the Valentine Gallery in New York in order to raise funds for the Spanish Refugee Relief Campaign, before it moved to the Museum of Modern Art for the anticipated retrospective Picasso exhibition that drew record crowds. The masterpiece would 1 Jed Perl, Calder: the Conquest of Time: The Early Years, 1898-1940 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017), chap. 25, Adobe ePub 2 Ibidem. 3 be on an extensive loan to the Museum of Modern Art, because Picasso had prohibited it to be brought back to Spain during Franco’s reign and it remained in the collection of the MOMA until it finally traveled to Madrid in 1981 after both Picasso and Franco had passed away. Guernica came to be an important symbol for the Spanish Civil War, and more importantly, it depicts a universal image of human suffering as inflicted by war in general, giving it a timeless significance. It became a place of protest against the Vietnam War after the My Lai Massacre and it remains a reminder of civilian suffering during wartime.3 A reproduction of Guernica even suggestively graces the walls of the UN headquarters as a memento within the beacon of multilateralism and diplomacy. Guernica was meant to mobilize people internationally into an anti-war and anti- fascist direction and it has done just that. Cultural institutions and individuals working in the art world within the United States were moved by an internationally pressing political conflict and recognized Guernica as political ammunition. By showing the painting to an American audience and collecting funds to support Spanish refugees, the painting became part of a larger movement within the cultural sector that aimed to raise awareness of the Spanish Civil War and may have even aspired to influence the course of American foreign policy. Sometimes a painting can say more than a political leader can and, sometimes, cultural institutions can take up political endeavors more effectively than the actual government can. The government’s hands might be tied, restricted by legal, economic or political issues. The public role that non-governmental institutions and famous intellectuals have, can be extremely politically important. In the case of Guernica, the painting was commissioned by the deposed Republican government of Spain, but it continuous journey was marked by the role of cultural institutions. Picasso’s famous painting is a mere example of a larger cultural movement that was active within the United States throughout the years of the Spanish conflict. The scholarship surrounding the role of the United States (or lack thereof) within the Spanish Civil War usually revolves around the narrative of neutrality and non-interventionism by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration. The American people are included in this narrative by the occasional mention of a public opinion poll in which the people appear to have little interest in getting involved in any foreign conflict. Interestingly, the Spanish Civil 3 Francis Frascina, "Meyer Schapiro's Choice: My Lai, Guernica, MOMA and the Art Left, 1969-70," Journal of Contemporary History, no. 3, vol 30 (1995), 483, 498. 4 War did manage to arouse a very strong sentimental response amongst many prominent intellectuals and artists. Scholars and journalists alike often look back at the Spanish Civil War as the preamble to World War II and as a kick off of the heightened political tensions that continued through the second half of the twentieth century. On April 10, 1939, when Franco’s fascist forces had won the Spanish Civil War, Life published an extensive photojournalistic article showing a large picture of Francisco Franco with the description “the quirks of his character mean life or death to 2,000,000 Spaniards, possibly even life or death to the imperial ambitions of Britain, France, Italy or Germany.”4 The article continued with pictures of the defeated Spanish Republic, while looking towards the future referring to the Spanish Civil War as “a testing ground” and “a dress rehearsal for the next world war.”5 This claim to a direct linkage between the seemingly domestic Spanish conflict and the following decennia of international hostility has captivated academics since the 1950s. British academics were at the frontline of scholarship on the Spanish Civil War. During the Francoist dictatorship Spanish scholars did not do any independent research on this period in their own history. Only from the late 1990s onwards, the topic started gaining momentum within Spanish academia, often drawing heavily from Anglophone scholars such as historian Hugh Thomas who had already delved into the archival material during the past half-century. Conducting independent research and writing objective scholarship on the topic remains a challenge in Spain and some historians have been criticized for adopting a very particular angle favoring either of the battling sides too much.6 British historian Hugh Thomas published his vast account of the conflict under the title The Spanish Civil War in 1961 and later a revised version in 2003. He is considered to be an authority in his field and scholars up to this day still refer to his research as eminently important. Thomas’ comprehensive reference work also includes the various reactions within the international community. Regarding the United States, Thomas argued that American politicians were aware of the events happening in Spain, but felt a considerable distance towards them and held on to their policy of neutrality firmly and steadily. Thomas did point out the “natural sympathy for the Spanish Republic” of President Roosevelt and illustrated how the Spanish Civil War had reached the American public through propaganda and 4 NA, “Madrid Falls and General Franco’s Spain Joins the European Dictatorships” Life April 10, 1939, 17. 5 Ibidem, 20. 6 Guillermo Sanz Gallego, “La Traducción como Manipulación Historiográfica el el Exilio: Análisis Paratextual e Intertextual de La Guerra Civil Española de Hugh Thomas,” Arbor, no. 780, vol 192 (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2016.780n4016. 5 mainstream media, similar to other Western countries.7 The Spanish Civil War also included American involvement by pointing out the substantial support in the form of food that was sent to Spain by the Red Cross and by explaining the phenomenon of the Abraham Lincoln Brigades. Although the various legal developments had made it nearly impossible for Americans to travel to Spain during the years of the Spanish Civil War, there was still a large number of them that made their way over to the conflict areas illegally to fight for the Spanish Republican government. Thomas did not focus on cultural figures, although he dropped the names of Hemingway and Picasso very sporadically. Leading historian on the subject of the Spanish Civil War, Paul Preston, who had been a student and research assistant of Hugh Thomas, has published many books on the Spanish Civil War, dedicating half his career to the conflict. Preston published his research with titles such as La Muerte de Guernica (2016) and The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution, and Revenge (1978).

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