The Spanish Avant-Garde

the long version

This is the first book in English to examine the development of the avant-garde in Spain during the early twentieth century, across a wide range of cultural media. The great Spanish painters of the avant-garde, such as Picasso, became part of the School of Paris and gained their fame within the international pictorial language of cubism and post-cubism. The writers of Spain were restricted in the international arena by their native language, and there were also painters who never journeyed outside Spain. Inside the frontiers of Spain the ferment of avant-garde activity took on particular characteristics, with major figures like Ramon Gomez de la Serna creating the climate of experimentation to be exploited later by the 1920s generation that includes Lorca and Bunuel. In a series of snapshots designed to convey the excitement of the time and some of its greatest achievements, an international team of specialists present chapters on the painting, novels, theatre, poetry and cinema of the Spanish avant-garde.