José Luis Rey Vila’s powerful sketches of street battles and wearied soldiers brought the conflict to the world. A new show in Barcelona celebrates his overlooked legacy
Pablo Picasso may be the artist most famously associated with the Spanish civil war, but as the rifles fired in revolutionary Catalonia, it was those on the frontlines who first captured the conflict. One of the most important was José Luis Rey Vila, whose sketches brought the rhythms of war to life in bold, blocky lines with splashes of intense colour.
Full of urgency and movement, many of his sketches document anarchist militias engaged in street battles; others depict more sanguine scenes after the fighting stopped. In charcoal and watercolours, Rey Vila produced arresting portraits of red-capped volunteers, nurses tending the wounded, and the women of the milicianas raising their fists on the move. His work travelled far at exhibits and in widely reproduced booklets, raising international awareness before Picasso’s cubist horrors relayed the destruction of Guernica to the world.
Continue reading...
José Luis Rey Vila’s powerful sketches of street battles and wearied soldiers brought the conflict to the world. A new show in Barcelona celebrates his overlooked legacyPablo Picasso may be the artist most famously as...
See more
