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Viva los toros. Posters for reflection

Viva los toros

Posters for reflection

From 4 November 2010 to 23 January 2011

Sala Estudi General – La Nau

Opening hours: from Tuesday to Saturday, from 10 to 14 h and from 16 to 20 h. Sundays and bank holidays, from 10 to 14 h. ADMISSION IS FREE.

50 Posters [+]

Vídeo "Vivan los toros" (wmv - 56') [+]

Poster [+]

Hoja de Mano [+]

Organised by the University of Valencia

Produced by the General Foundation of the University of Valencia

With cooperation from ADCV (Asociación Diseñadores de la Comunidad Valencia) www.adcv.com, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia y Jaume I University (Castelló)

Project management: Boke Bazán

General coordination: Norberto Piqueras

Introduction

We all remember the magnificent posters made in Paris by Jules Chéret after 1886. He was the first artist to exclusively focus on posters and the great promoter of lithographic process improvement applied to reproduction, which he achieved in his own printing workshop, managing to reproduce several colours in the same poster. The progress made left behind xylographic works in just one colour, with simple drawings or with types only. Gradually, the urban landscape of Paris and its austere walls began to be covered with adverts of great and colourful shows. Other artists like Toulouse-Lautrec, despite his short production (he only made 32 posters over his short lifetime), contributed a unique and specific language to this new extremely attractive and effective means of communication.

The affiches soon became the main instrument of mass communication. Some advertisers saw in them a huge opportunity to position themselves; this was the case with well-known and paradigmatic advertising campaigns like Bibendum in 1898 by Marius Rossillon for Michelin, or here in Spain, the posters made in Barcelona by Ramón Casas for Anís del Mono, still remembered by many. The commercial success of advertisers consolidated the importance of posters as the essential tool of advertising communication in the late 19^th century.

Although in the early years of the new century Valencia did not yet follow the pace of modern artistic contributions from other European cities, the city had kept an artistic tradition and, like elsewhere, some painters complemented their production and income with ads and posters for local businesses. Although the Civil War was the saddest event in the history of twentieth-century Spain, more than two thousand posters with political and military propaganda of both sides were designed and printed in those three years. Valencian artists such as Josep Renau, Manuel Monleón, Rafael Raga, Enrique Climent, the brothers Arturo and Vicente Ballester, Cabedo Torrent, Debón, Petit Guillem or Pérez Contel, wholeheartedly devoted themselves to this task on the basis of their Republican political commitment and conviction: this devotion was very much in line with the phrase The army of art which the poet Mayakovsky came up with for all those artists who, putting painting and sculpture apart, focused on printing work to put their ideas and proposals into mass production. At present, the large number of posters of the civil war, which were created for the various ministries and trade unions, with great freedom, make up an enormous graphic heritage of great value and interest both historically and plastically. Although most authors wanted to have a highly realistic visual and emotional impact with their images, in order to exert such influence many of them had to use the language of the avant-gardes, which oddly enough led to its crisis and disappearance after the war in Spain and World War II.

The result of the high demand for posters and the relative freedom that the artists enjoyed, a heritage of great value and interest was created. In fact we could say that these authors, aware of what was happening in Europe, brought the avant-garde language to Valencia.

In addition to billboards for shows like the circus or Las Fallas, in the 1930s the artists also produced posters for bullfights. As an avant-garde author, Renau's graphic work is the best example; it broke away from the classical discourse of bullfighting posters made so far and whose "Golden Age", according to some authors, took place between 1923 and 1931. At that time there was a consolidated school of artists more or less specialized in the bullfight poster, like Ramón Casas, Julio Romero de Torres, Roberto Domingo, Alcaraz, J. Reus, Saavedra, Antonio Casero, García Campos, Martínez de León, Álvarez Carmena or Carlos Ruano Llopis from Alicante, who was considered by many the most refreshing, prominent and influential poster artist. To all this we must add the contribution of such distinguished artists like Sorolla or Benlliure, who collaborated with some posters for charity bullfights. Thus, a particular style was consolidated, laying the foundations of the type of bullfighting posters that have reached our day.

It is remarkable and thought-provoking to see that in more than a century of bullfighting posters, unlike other expressions of graphic design and other artistic disciplines, nothing has changed in their arguments, compositions, or style.

Viva los toros. Posters for reflection

2010. Culture and art are exercised and consumed in a different manner from that of the past century. Nowadays, it is all right to think that our society is more educated, aware, sensitive, critical and supportive, and that among other things it is not indifferent to injustice, war and the needy, inside and outside our borders. Proof of this are the ongoing public demonstrations that advocate values that differentiate us as a mature, advanced and democratic society, a society with a voice that thinks and feels, and is aware that it has the ability to change things.

As cultural agents and communications specialists, from a social and progressive commitment, a group of 50 illustrators and designers aware of their influence on the media and society, have come together to contribute to the debate about bullfights with a critical position in their works: current images and texts that go beyond the clichés.

This exhibition is defined as a totally independent, reflective and open cultural proposal to all opinions. It does not intend to promote bans but to connect with an audience in search of knowledge, who requires progressive ideas and is willing to reflect.

The exhibition started to be defined in January 2009 and came true when the authors -invited out of affinity or friendship- joined, with tremendous enthusiasm and selflessly, a project that at the time did not even have a site to exhibit the posters.

Based on the exhibition principles and interests of the Department for Culture of Universitat de València in programming and producing the poster show, the exhibition “Viva los toros. Posters for reflection” will be opened in October 2010 at La Nau. The show will include works by exceptional artists from graphic design and illustration, from different generations but with great public prestige nationally and internationally (some of them have been awarded the National Prize).