Devastation and fatal consequences

“(...) Hunger, terror, and misery everywhere. This is the real war.” (So wrote
Esteban Vega, in the introduction to War Laid Bare. 25 Engravings of the War, with Its Horrors and Disasters, by the illustrator Yes, with a foreword by Rafael Alberti, Madrid, Editorial Roja, 1936.)

The disastrous consequences of war on the population were a matter of paramount importance in the art of the Civil War. Whether through the depiction of imagined yet realistic events or witnessed incidents, these scenes stemmed from a need to bear witness to the horrific occurrences. This was a testimonial art form, charged with deep emotion, in which the echo of Francisco de Goya’s famous “I saw it” resounded powerfully. Goya’s work during the Napoleonoc invasion of Spain—especially The Disasters of War—was an undeniable point of reference for artists during the Civil War, who evoked his critical spirit and often chose to portray barbarity in its rawest form.

Cordoban artist Horacio Ferrer’s Madrid, 1937 (Black Planes) depicts one of the aerial bombings that he and his family experienced in Madrid. The figures portrayed are, in fact, his own relatives: his wife, his sisters-in-law, his newborn niece, his mother-in-law, and his own children. The work was exhibited at the Spanish Pavilion of the 1937 International Exposition in Paris, where it was greatly admired. Several other scenes of aerial attacks were also on display there, including Picasso’s Guernica. The widespread media coverage of the bombings helped turn them into icons, with Guernica being the most obvious example. Numerous artistic depictions were made of that fateful attack, as well as others that occurred during the conflict, making this type of representation the most compelling artistic expression of the devastation wrought by modern warfare.

Scenes of evacuations also captured this misery. Several of these depicted the episode known as La Desbandá, the exodus that began in Málaga and turned into a massacre on the road to Almería during the Francoist attack in February 1937. Artists also addressed other harrowing subjects: visions of corpses, executions, hunger, disease, and ruins. A common thread emerged across this body of images of devastation: their protagonists, women and children, and often the elderly. They were the victims of the Civil War—just as they have continued to be in other modern conflicts.

IEG