- Dates
- —
- Curated by
- Joan Fontcuberta
Idas and Chaos: Aspects of the Photographic Avant-garde in Spain
Due to its dual documentary and artistic aspect, photography allows us, more than any other medium, to approach the past by describing its events and evoking its sensibilities. When this refers to the period between 1915 and 1940, we are recalling not only a series of truly important episodes in our recent history (the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the Republic, the Civil War), but also the whole explosion of historical avant-gardes that revolutionised the panorama of art and culture. These avant-gardes had outstanding figures in Spain in various fields of visual creation. But who are the paragons of Picasso, Miró, Dalí or Buñuel in the field of photographic expression?
Idas and Chaos: Aspects of the Photographic Avant-garde in Spain provides us with an answer to this, although only as an initial approach. It presents original works by twenty authors who, in line with the most advanced international trends in photography, have been able to crystallise the spirit of two mythological figures, the Argonaut Idas and the god Chaos: the sharp eye that would open up new perceptions and break with an established visual order that was dying in its supposed permanence and harmony.
Twenty authors whose legacy, in many cases, had to be recovered, both to include them in our artistic heritage and to show the injustice of their oblivion among us and their lack of recognition abroad.
There will be time to definitively assess their contribution. Today, to take just a few examples, we can only say that Josep Renau’s photomontages have little to envy John Heartfield’s, or Nicolás de Lekuona’s those of Alexander Rodchenko. That Pere Català Pic’s experimental vocation ran parallel to that of Man Ray. That Emili Godes’ meticulous documentary work sometimes surpassed that of Albert Renger-Patzsch. That Josep Sala’s advertising compositions were as daring as those of Piet Zwart. Or that Agustí Centelles’ intuition and sense of the news were as good as Robert Capa’s.
The Fundació Joan Miró is therefore pleased to present this exhibition, which was conceived and curated by Joan Fontcuberta. We would like to thank the Ministry of Culture for its collaboration as well as the photographers or their families and institutions that preserve the works.
Fundació Joan Miró
November 1984
