Exhibitions in Darro
In 1958, Francisco Muñoz Cabrero and Fernando Alonso Martínez founded DARRO, a Spanish furniture company for which the architects Miguel Fisac, Javier Carvajal, Fernando Ramón Moliner, José Antonio Coderch, Equipo 57 and Javier Feduchi, among others, designed. Darro was located in a commercial premises in the Salamanca neighbourhood of Madrid which, in addition to having...
Cirici, Puig, Lavanda
«My main interest is to become aware of reality. And I care about the study of art because it is a privileged way for doing so. ” This quote by Alexandre Cirici Pellicer (1914-1984) situates very well the interests of one of the most polyvalent pioneers of Spanish graphic design. Cirici developed his work in fields as...
Josep Queralt, master classes
In December 2004, a show opened at the Museum of Valls, birthplace of Josep Queralt (1910–1993), curated by Santi Barjau and Jordi Paris. It presented works produced by this pioneer for local businesses and industry, including Farmacia Muret, Porcelanas Isard, and the iron and steel manufacturer, agricultural cooperative and printing house Moncunill. In the introductory...
Shouting at the wall
Just a few months ago, the publication Crits a la paret i poemes visuals. Josep Pla-Narbona. Cartells 1947-2004, coordinated by the recently departed Professor Anna Calvera, was presented at the Barcelona Design Museum. In the files in my study, I still have the preparatory dossier in Catalan for this book, with a different working title...
The Poster in Asturias
It is inspiring to see how in recent years a proliferation of initiatives have materialized in the form of monographic books or exhibitions that are serving to recover and value the work of the pioneers of Spanish graphic design. Virtually all the graphic artists that appeared in the book “Pioneers” in 2007, years later are...
Prieto and the Theatrical Poster
This is the third post published in “Graphic Pioneers” about different creative aspects of Manolo Prieto’s work. We previously referred to the series of covers that he designed for “Novels and Stories” (see previous post) or the illustrations collected in the book “Toros en El Puerto” (see previous post); this time we are going to...
The Poster’s Third Dimension
In 1890 the French painter Maurice Denis asserted: “remember that a painting – before it is a battle horse, a nude model, or some anecdote – is essentially a flat surface covered with colours assembled in a certain order”. If this reflection is transferred over to the understanding of a poster, then it is unsurprising...
Pla-Narbona: Letters as partitions
“A chronicle and works by the draughtsman, engraver and sculptor Pla-Narbona” – with no reference to design – is the title of a publication that runs through Pla-Narbona’s career until 1974. As the same long title ran on it elaborated: “works from his beginnings to the present day, compiled, ordered, described and interpreted by Francesc...
Temas españoles (Spanish Matters): Verdú’s covers
The magazine Temas españoles (Spanish Matters) was an instrument for disseminating Francoist thought. The content between its covers enables us to gain an understanding of the ideas that evolved during the dictatorship via a selection of relevant issues and the construction of an idiosyncratic imaginary. The two-tone covers belonging to the first four hundred editions...
Bechtold, “Destino (Destination)” Barcelona
Erwin Bechtold arrived in Barcelona in 1950, although, as Ricard Giralt Miracle wrote in 1993, more than simply arriving in Barcelona, he disembarked in Filograf (see previous posts), the graphic arts studio where this pioneer would print his and his clients’ work. Bechtold and Giralt Miracle crossed paths in careers bound to print and typography,...
The covers of Novelas y Cuentos (Novels and Stories)
Behind the powerful personality of the Osborne Bull figure, designed by Manolo Prieto in 1956, was a striking body of work which was of particular relevance to graphic design in Spain: the covers which, for over 15 years, were produced for the weekly publication Novelas y Cuentos (Novels and Stories) between 1940 and 1957. The...
Partierra’s Book Covers
As I focused on the mysterious figure of Joaquín Pertierra I discovered the legacy of a restless graphic artist who, while faithful to his era, also looked towards the future and whose work brought more question marks to the surface as I uncovered it. An illustrator by profession and both elusive and sporadic, he developed...