Renau exhibit unusually relevant in Mexico

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Oct. 21, 2009

The graphic prints, provocative collages and eccentric murals of Spanish artist Josep Renau have had impeccable timing in Mexico.

As Mexico City's electricians continue to contest recent actions by the Mexican government to dissolve their union, Renau's messages of syndicate strength and systematic struggles have been born anew, finding an unintentional contemporary context for the artwork's latest exhibit.

Nearly 300 pieces by the Valenciíborn artist have traveled to the Tlatelolco University Cultural Center (CCUT) as part of the display "Josep Renau 1907-1982: Compromiso y Cultura," or "Commitment and Culture," up through Jan. 10, 2010.

But part of his art is already on display in Mexico. Renau, after all, helped Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros complete his 1939 mural at the Mexican Syndicate of Electricians building.

"Renau is an example of what is the political commitment of artists and intellectuals, a theme that in this moment is not touched on as much," said curator Jaime Brihuega of the Complutense University of Madrid.

"Every time art is called 'political' in our days, it is just another marketing tool. That is why it is important to have this exhibit, because Reanu is an artist that teaches that there are always problems around us, and that we should talk about these problems."

"He fought against the world's injustices every moment that he lived," he said of the communist-allied artist.

Brihuega added that the CCUT exhibit aims to resurrect the work and history of an artist who was fundamental in Spanish and Mexican culture.

The display was first assembled in Valencia in 2007 to celebrate what would have been Renau's 100th birthday. The exhibit also traveled to Madrid, Sevilla, Las Palmas and Zaragoza before moving to Mexico City this past Oct. 14, kicking off a world tour organized in part by Spain's State Society for Cultural étion Abroad (SEACEX).

At the CCUT's Salón Juárez gallery, the Renau exhibit is divided into four parts; the circular display is a timeline of the artist's often controversial works in relation to the historical events that served as his muse.

"Times of the Republic: Between Formation and Commitment" spans the years 1926 to 1936, when Renau came of age as an artist and a political activist during this pre-war period. The exhibit opens with ink-on-paper sketches of shapely women, aged prints of magazine covers and minutely detailed lithographs.

During this period, the republican-socialist government of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931 replaced the monarchy while nationalist and fascist tendencies strengthened. At this time, Renau was creating his infamous graphic designs and photomontages of sensual yet tasteful nudes, prominent political figures and cultural references.

A 1935 cover of the Valencia magazine Nueva Cultura, for example, is a lithograph detailing the horsemen of the apocalypse, including the Pope, dollar sign-toting bankers and well-heeled politicians. Renau founded and directed the magazine, and he also designed and edited for political periodicals like Estudios, Octubre and "Orto."

The exhibit section "Spain in War: 1936-1939" marks Renau's rise as a prominent intellectual and a renowned artistic director during the Spanish Civil War.

The war ended in 1939 when General Francisco Franco and the nationalist and fascist movements overthrew the Republic and instated a right-wing dictatorship, over which Franco ruled until 1975.

Renau worked tirelessly during this period to publish posters, photomontages and murals dedicated to "agitprop," a term that blends "agitation" with "propagandO and is used to disseminate the communist agenda.

His 1936 photomontage "7 de octubre. Una nueva era en el campo" ("October 7. A New Age in the Field") pictures a man's fist clenched tightly and tinted red as it grips the handle of a curved sickle, with golden stalks of grain illuminating the background.

That same year, Renau was named the General Director of Fine Arts for Spain, and he oversaw the National Orchestra, the National Committee of Music and the Spanish Pavilion in the 1937 World Fair in Paris. He also commissioned fellow artist Pablo Picasso to paint his well-known cubist mural, "Guernica."

The sequence "Crossing the Ocean: Exile in Mexico" follows 1939 to 1958, when Renau sought refuge from the Franco dictatorship in Mexico. Here, Renau absorbed the influences of famed Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera and Siqueiros, and Renau continued writing about his political leanings for leftist publications.

Curator Brihuega noted, "In every place that he visited, he has had this duplicity - he opens his life to influences, while at the same time creating his own school of art."

Handwritten papers at the gallery document Renau's 1947-48 stance in Cuernavaca, where he carried out the intricate and vivid mural "Casino de la SelvO ("Casino of the Jungle").

Impressive oil paintings capture traditional scenic landscapes interpreted through an avant-garde eye; reeds and conch shells on a beach, for example, are presented with sharp angles and stark contrasts.

Renau in 1954 also began his highly celebrated photomontage series "American Way of Life," a 12-year project mixing vanguard photographs and graphic designs and that later helped fuel the Pop Art movement in Spain.

The exhibit's final chapter "Images éross the Wall" includes artwork produced during Renau's second exile period in East Germany from 1958 to 1982, including his second photomontage series "Sobre AlemaniO ("About Germany").

The artist's political poignancy at this time was influenced by the so-called Cold War, and his art reflected constructive realism, a philosophy that emphasizes science in the political realm.

His 1969 large-scale mural "El futuro trabajador del comunismo" ("The Future Worker of Communism") paints a bare-chested man bent over a control panel as stars and grids swirl behind him. Beneath his desk, colorful geometric shapes circle forcefully, reflecting Renau's artistic ability to put powerful motion into stagnant images.

Renau's anthology ends with a series of 1970s-era collages heavily focused on the female body. "Madre TierrO ("Mother Earth"), for example, is a 1975 portrait of a single breast emerging over the horizon as if it were a hill surrounded by an oasis of firs and field grass.

The polemic artist traveled numerous times to Spain throughout the six years preceding his 1982 death. There, he published various books and hosted many exhibitions on his work. He continued creating his posters, designs, collages and murals until he died in Berlin.