Exposición no. 2. Antonio Bonet: Arquitectura

Exposición no. 2. Antonio Bonet: Arquitectura. Exh cat. Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona. Barcelona: 1960. Oblong, 18.5 cm, [12] pp.; b/w illus. throughout the architect’s projects in Latin America (primarily Argentina and Uruguay); stapled self-wrapper, lightly worn.

Catalogue of the second exhibit at the newly organized Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona (MACBA). Curated by art critic and co-founder of MACBA, Alexandre Cirici Pellicer, it features photo-illustrations of architect Antonio Bonet’s work in Latin America, and an essay, “La Nueva Ciudad Latina de Antonio Bonet” by Oriol Bohigas. Bonet (1913-1989) cofounded the architectural and design collective Grupo Astral in Buenos Aires (inspired by the GATEPAC, in Catalunya).

The catalogue itself is a scarce artifact of the short lived original MACBA program. The museum existed from 1960-1963 when it closed for political reasons during the Franco regime. A museum of contemporary art was proposed by provincial authorities again in 1985, the new MACBA opened to the public in 1995.

We are able to locate only one other copy in museum and library collections, at the Museu Nacional d’art de Catalunya.

$225

Cultura Doméstica; Cultura Femenina (all published)

(Feminism) [Karr, Carme, aka Carmen Karr] Cultura Doméstica: Revista Mensual de [...] las Diversas Ramas de la Vida Familiar. Año I, Núm 1-18; followed by Cultura Femenina: Revista Mensual Ilustrada de la Mujer y el Hogar. Año III, Núm 19-24 (all published). 26.8 cm, annual continuous pagination (122, 182, and 96 pp. respectively); illustrated women’s serial with texts in both Castilian and Catalan, bound in single cloth volume, lacking orig. wrappers. Barcelona: 1933-1935.

Uncommon Spanish Republican women’s serial directed by the Catalonian feminist and journalist, Carme Karr, who wrote for and edited some of Spain’s earliest feminist publications, including the magazines Feminal and Or y Grana. Women were granted suffrage in Spain in 1931 (and were elected to office that same year), but the could not actually participate in elections until November 1933, shortly after the origination Cultural Doméstica.

The serial documents the early days of this brief moment in Spanish women’s history (roughly 1931-1939), when new freedoms and roles were possible. This period lasted until the Republican defeat in the Civil War ushered in a new era of tradition and oppression. Along with monthly columns on women’s issues and news by Karr (e.g. “La mission social de la mujer en la vida moderna,” the magazine carried regular features on girl’s education, women at work and job training, medicine and family health, cooking, fashion, applied arts and interior design, all with an emphasis on modern styles, particularly German. Contributions by or articles on artists and authors including Elvira August Lewi, Margarita Sans Jordi, Margarita Xirgu, Anna Casanovas (book binder), Maria Teresa Vernet, Enriqueta Pascual Benigani, and the fashion houses Pedro Rodriguez and El Dique Flotante.

OCLC records one holding, in Barcelona.

$550

Illustrated Autograph Album: El Frente de Juventudes Femenino a su Regidora Comarcal

(Education - Girls) (Fascism) [El Frente de Juventudes Femenino, Villanueva y Geltrú]. Illustrated Autograph Album: El Frente de Juventudes Femenino a su Regidora Comarcal. June 1943. Oblong 19.5 x 31 cm, 97 manuscript leaves; including approx. 90 pages individually executed by members of the Juventudes Femenino, approx. 90 with brightly colored pencil and pen drawings accompanying various inscriptions, poems, songs, and signatures; stab bound in brown faux-leather boards with leather thread, leather broken thus loosening the album, otherwise very good. With two leaves laid in, these two a bit frayed where they extended beyond the boards.

Unique illustrated gift album for Sra. Mercedes Rodriguez, a regional commander of the Falange Party’s Girls Youth Front, commemorating a political indoctrination summer camp focusing on home economics, physical education, religion, and social hygiene. During the Civil War, El Frente de Juventudes (like its fascist counterparts Hitlerjugend [Germany] and Balilla [Italy]) became an important part of securing a fascist future. Following the Nationalist victory, Franco made voluntary and involuntary state-sponsored youth organizations a priority of his new government, providing militarized style training for both boys and girls. Loosely based on scouting troops, the girls sections (“Margaritas” for 7-10 yr olds; “Flechas” for 10-18 yr olds) wore uniforms and practiced the songs and policies of the new Homeland.

Later superseded by the Juventudes de la Sección Femenina (1945), the Margaritas and Flechas of 1943 were being prepared to be good wives and mothers to the soldiers of Spain: in addition to domestic skills (sewing, nursing, cooking, etc.), they were encouraged to be physically fit, hygienic, churchgoers capable of teaching the core Falange values (Dios, Patria, Hogar) to the next generation.

In detailed drawings and inscriptions, the album documents the language and imagery of this indoctrination and its eerie combination of idealized femininity, children’s comics, and facist propaganda. Again and again Margaritas and Flechas announce their dedication to their beloved (“cariño”) commander, obedience to the political hierarchy of the Falange (“a tus ordenes”), and submission to the collective goals of national syndicalism. ¡Arriba España!

Despite its wide integration into girls education for more than thirty years, El Frente de Juventudes Femenino and the Juventudes de la Sección Femenina are poorly documented in North American institutions.

$2250

Eight Spanish Republican Women’s Groups’ Handbills and Flyers

(Anarcho-Feminism) (Guerra Civil) (Suffrage) (Songs) [Agrupación Mujeres Libres; La Secció Femenina del Bloc Obrer i Camperol; Las Agrupaciones Femeninas del Partido Radical, et al.]. Eight Republican Women’s Groups Handbills and Flyers, ca. 1934-1938. Np, nd. [Barcelona, Madrid, et al.]. Various sizes ranging from 31.5 x 22 to 16.5 x 16.5 cm; all but one printed recto only, fragile papers with minor fraying and small closed tears or nicks throughout. One green paper foxed. One illustrated, linocut?

Rare ephemera from various Republican women’s political organizations during the Spanish Second Republic and the Civil War, these handbills express outrage with the failures of certain political leaders and parties, and appeal to women to vote (as proletariat workers; domestic laborers, and mothers). Women’s suffrage was established in 1933; these examples attempt to enlist their support for the FAI and CNT, Catalonian Independence, and voluntary military service, among other issues.

One important sheet contains two coplas (folk songs) first published in the anarcho-feminist “Mujeres Libres” magazine: “El sambenito” and “Alto la Revolución.” These represent the complexity and despair of the counter-revolutionary movements building at the end of the Civil War.

None of the present examples are recorded in OCLC collections.

$1200

1a Exposició de Cartells [...] Internacionals en Previsió dels Accidents de Treball

(Graphic Design) (Worker Safety) (Expositions) Generalitat de Catalunya, Conselleria de Treball; and Marti Bas, Illus. Calendar commemorating the 1a Exposició de Cartells Nacionals i Internacionals en Previsió dels Accidents de Treball. Barcelona: 1937. 23.5 x 16.6 cm; 52 weekly calendar sheets printed recto, each sheet illustrating a different international worker safety poster with explanations of the dangers represented in each, in Catalan. Sheets loose, neatly removed from their original perforated(?) binding, the final week mounted to a heavier card stock, weeks 43 and 46 with small losses to blind top edge where removed from binding. Orig. color cover present, illus. by Marti Bas, lightly foxed on blank verso, not affecting recto. Together with a second calendar: Generalitat de Catalunya, Conselleria de Treball. [Croada de La Previsio 1937]: [Commemoració de la 1a Exposició de Cartells Nacionals i Internacionals en Previsió dels Accidents de Treball…]. Barcelona: 1937. [Fotolitografia Barguño]. 11.4 x 7.7 cm. [8] pp., single sheet, tri-fold monthly calendar with 14 illus. Both VG+.

Appealing, otherwise unrecorded, artifacts of a graphic design exhibition organized during the Spanish Civil War by the Catalonian Ministry of Labor, probably in conjunction with the UGT (General Workers Union). The weekly calendar surveys 52 dramatic, often frightening, international accident prevention posters (incl. the workplace dangers of alcohol, electrical shocks; eye safety; braking; cranes, ladders, fire, slips and falls, heavy lifting, cables, scaffoldings, scalding, sharp tools, sewing machines, etc.). Examples drawn from safety campaigns in Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and the U.K. (Strange bedfellows given the political realities of many of these countries in January 1937!)

The safety posters themselves were probably the product of union efforts in individual countries, not necessarily by governmental organizations or propaganda offices. They underscore the dangerous and inhumane conditions that many laborers faced twenty years after the creation of the ILO in the Treaty of Versailles (1919). Occupational health and safety policy would not be nationally regulated in most of these countries for another thirty to forty years.

Cover illustration by artist Marti Bas, known for his work on other civil war-era posters and propaganda programs.

We are unable to find records of another copy of the weekly calendar in OCLC or market records, such as they are. The smaller, monthly calendar is known from other examples, but is also not listed in OCLC holdings.

$1750

Two Photographs of Anarchist Actions in Barcelona

(Anarchism) (Political Violence) Two Photographs. Barcelona: 1896 and 1902. One gelatin silver(?) print: 12 x 16.8 cm and one albumen print: 12.5 x 17.3 cm. Both mounted to heavier tan card, with substantial manuscript annotations recto, one stamped “Vista de Heridos y Demas Traumatismos / Del Hospital de la Sta. Cruz / Barcelona”. Verso with additional stamps and later annotations and signatures (by an administrator?) dated July 1906. Photos a bit worn, card on latter with some flaking and splitting, not affecting the image.

Scarce primary source documentation of early anarchist actions in Barcelona, a period of violent engagement that radicalized many Europeans. The earlier photograph documents 8 of the approx. 64 people wounded by the bombing of a Corpus Christi procession in Barcelona on June 7, 1896. Although no one claimed responsibility, municipal authorities and the police blamed militant anarchists and used the violence as a pretext to arrest and torture hundreds of anarchists and labor organizers, eventually sentencing five men to death at Montjuic. The real perpetrators were never found, and circumstantial evidence has led many to believe it was a false flag operation, since the bomb went off among the working-class crowd, rather than amongst the high-ranking politicians and church officials in the parade itself.

The second photograph documents wounded participants in Barcelona’s first general strike, in February 1902. The general strike evolved from an anarcho-syndicalist metal workers’ strike into a citywide work stoppage which eventually found working men and women, students, and the lower classes in pitched battles against the Spanish military. Hospital de la Santa Cruz was the destination for the strikers’ wounded and dead comrades.

$1500

La Protesta: Semanario de Batalla

(Nationalism) (Carlism) (Anti-Semitism) La Protesta: Semanario de Batalla. Radicalismo, Intransigencia, Nobleza, Sinceridad. Año I, Núm. 1. Barcelona, 1923. 49.6 x 34.5 cm, 4 pp., newsprint toned with creases at bifolds, small loss through full sheet at central crease, not affecting text.

First issue of an irregularly published radical monarchist (Carlist) paper, issued during the political crisis that led to General Miguel Primo de Rivera’s coup and dictatorship. Prefigures the cooperation of the Carlists with the fascists against the Second Republic with expressions of outrage against Spanish losses in Morocco, Catalan separatism, and the enemies of the “Sindicato Rojo” (the anarcho-syndicalist CNT etc.). Satirizes the campaign of a Jewish politician, Frederico Schwartz, and includes a brief panel on Schopenhauer’s fatal pessimism (but support of monarchism?).

Bold graphic design from the far-right. No copies of any issues in North America.

$325

Direcções Telefonicas

(Advertising - Socks - Spanish Civil War) Bosch & Baylina. Direcções Telefonicas. [Porto, Portugal]: [1938]. 30 cm. Unused. Decorative hanging telephone directory with color lithographic printing across fourteen heavy index cards mounted to board, the first further reinforced. Lightly abraded at center of design, affecting three leaves.

Lovely directory, each index page with a peppy promotional suggestion for Bosch & Baylina’s socks or expressing support for national industry and economy. The Portuguese factory was owned by Ramon Baylina, a supporter of the fascist Spanish Falange during the Civil War. As the president of Casa de España de Porto, he organized fundraisers for Spanish fascist causes and used his factories to host volunteer workshops to fabricate clothing for Spanish Falange soldiers. Curiously, Baylina also donated socks throughout the war to the Spanish Republican side.

“Calce a meia EGARA e não se arrependerá.”

No Bosch & Baylina materials recorded in OCLC.

$500

El Arte del Embellecimiento

(Trade Catalogue - Beauty) Tangee. El Arte del Embellecimiento [cover title]. [New York]: [George Luft], 1929. Oblong (10 cm), [16] pp.; profusely illustrated in color; stapled self-wrappers, very good.

American pharmacist George Luft built Tangee cosmetics and its “color-changing” lipstick formula into one of the most popular brands in the US before WWII. It excelled with colorful, modern branding and testimonials from many theater and film stars of the day (here Anita Page, Sue Carol, Ann Pennington, et al.). The present pamphlet designed for the Spanish market.

Scarce, no examples of Tangee trade materials are recorded in OCLC.

$250

Catálogo de Peletería

(Trade Catalogue - Fashion) Peletería Bertrán y Compania. Catálogo de Peletería. Barcelona: [Seix & Barral Herms.], [1915]. 4to (26.5 cm), [12] pp.; one page printed recto only, followed by [8] pp. of full-page plates with color graphics; in stapled french-fold wrapper with tipped-in pictorial illustration.

Fine example of exuberant graphics and luxury commercial activities at the beginning of WWI. Published by Barcelona graphics specialist, Seix & Barral.

Not found in OCLC.

$225

Catálogo de Peletería

(Trade Catalogue - Fashion) Peletería H. Solsona. Catálogo de Peletería. Barcelona: [Seix & Barral Herms.], [1917]. Tall 8vo (25 cm), [16] pp.; one page intro. followed by full-page illus. plates, each embellished with a unique b/w headpiece; in stapled color pictorial wrappers by “Porta”, fore-edge lightly foxed and chipped, not affecting illustration.

Eye-catching Orientalist pochoir(?) cover illustration followed by 15 furrier fashion plates, each with an amusing vignette (many with the specific animals used in the coat depicted in the plate, others of fashionable women out and about). Published by Barcelona graphics specialist, Seix & Barral.

Not found in OCLC.

$225

¿Qué es la CNT? : La emancipación de los trabajadores será obra de ellos mismos o no será

Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, Federación Local de Malaga. ¿Qué es la CNT? : La emancipación de los trabajadores será obra de ellos mismos o no será. Malaga: Libreria Interna Confederal, Federación Local de Malaga, 1978. Oblong 8vo, 26 pp.; stapled pictorial wraps, sl. soiled and creased, ex-library with withdrawn stamp p. 5 not affecting text.

$25

Aire. No. 1 (Junio 1937) through No. 4 (Primavera 1938) (all published)

Aire. No. 1 (Junio 1937) through No. 4 (Primavera 1938) (all published). Barcelona: N.p., 1937-1938. 4to, 12-1/2 x 9-3/8 in., four issues: [48], [72], [74], [76] pp.; full-page illustrations throughout, incl. b/w reproductions, experimental typography and design, numerous multicolored printing techniques, with overlays and varied papers, corners bumped with a few creases and scattered toning to interior, No. 1 with a small loss to blank edge on two leaves not affecting text or images. No. 4 with small dampstain to blank fore corner on a few central leaves. Spiral-bound color pictorial wraps, No. 1 with short closed tear to front wrap, Nos. 2 and 4 a bit foxed and worn at the edges and wire.

A complete run of “one of the most luxurious and visually dynamic publications of the [Spanish Civil] war.” This short-lived avant-garde aviation serial was published during the war under the direction of the Republican Air Force. The contents are antifascist and literary, promoting solidarity with the Popular Front, the USSR, and Mexico. Wartime aviation news is interspersed with articles on artistic and cultural topics, poetry, photo essays, and advertisements. The first issue’s somber and poetic epigraph belies the exuberant graphics: “Al hombre le nacieron alas … Cuando conquisto el cielo, quiso destruir la tierra.”

Artist Salvador Ortiga, known for his political graphics, was responsible for the dramatic covers and probably much of the design. Ortiga was arrested at the end of the war and died in a notorious Nationalist prison camp in 1939.

An oft-cited highlight of Guerra Civil print culture, rare complete. OCLC lists three North American holdings: UI-UC, UPenn, and Princeton.

See Jordan Mendelson, Revistas y Guerra, 1936-1939, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, 2007.

$2500

Las Juventudes Libertarias de Artes Gráficas protestan [...]

[Federación Ibérica de Juventudes Libertarias (FIJL) and Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI)] and Comisión pro-Cultura Juventudes Libertarias de Artes Gráficas. Las Juventudes Libertarias de Artes Gráficas protestan del torpedeamiento de que es objeto la Banda Municipal, y piden a las demás Juventudes y amantes de la cultura, que hagan otro tanto. [Barcelona]: n.d. (ca. 1936-38). Broadside, 8-1/2 x 6-1/4 in.; toned and creased.

Impassioned and cheeky defense of the Municipal Band of Barcelona by a youth graphic arts and cultural commission associated with the socialist and anarchist federations during the Civil War. The band was directed by Joan Lamote de Grignon. Lamote was fired after Franco took the city in 1939 and fled to Valencia.

$175

Carteleras. Año I, No.1 - Año 1, No.3 (all published?)

Comite Ejecutivo de Espectaculos Publicos de U.G.T.-C.N.T. Carteleras. Año I, Núm. 1 (24 Enero 1937) to Año I, Núm. 3 (7 Febrero 1937) (all published?). Valencia, Spain: N.p., 1937. Three issues, each a single-sheet 4to, [8] pp.; some wear at edges and creases.

Weekly pamphlet advertising upcoming films and theater schedules in Valencia, published by the UGT-CNT whose unions controlled the theaters and film selection. Uncommon ephemera from the cultural revolution of the Spanish Civil War.

Unrecorded in OCLC.

$175

Comitè Econòmic d’Espectacles Públics

(Cinema) Comitè Econòmic d’Espectacles Públics. [Theater Broadside]. Girona, Spain: [CNT/AIT: Comitè Econòmic d’Espectacles Públics], 1936. 8-3/4 x 12-3/4 in.; toned as expected with a few ink notations, partially backed with paper, good.

Broadside advertising the weekend schedule (Aug. 27-30, 1936) of three Catalonian theaters collectivized by the CNT/AIT during the first month of the Spanish Civil War. The schedule included three class-conscious Hollywood movies: Vivamos de Nuevo (We Live Again, 1934; based on Tolstoy’s Resurrection); El Payaso del Circo (Circus Clown, 1934); and Duro y La Cabeza (St. Louis Kid, 1934).

Unrecorded in OCLC.

$175

Teatre del Poble: La música a través del poeta

Comissió de Cultura de l’Ajuntament de Terrassa. Teatre del Poble: La Música a través del poeta. Terrassa, Spain: Salvatella, 1937. Tri-fold, single sheet program, folded: 8-1/2 x 6 in., [6] pp.; approx. 1/2 in. neat closed tear at bottom edge, else very good; signed in ink by soloists Matilde Viver and A. Pons I Guitart.

A concert of “sublime” music probably prepared or sponsored by the Republican Teatro del Pueblo which organized performances in Catalonia during the Civil War. Representative of a brief avant-garde uprising in a conservative suburb of Barcelona, where some traditionalist artists were imprisoned (including Salvador Salvatella, founder of the press which issued this program?).

$95

Nosotros: [Revista Mensual Anarquista]

(Giménez Igualda, Miguel). Nosotros: [Revista Mensual Anarquista]. Nos. 1 [Oct. 1937] and 5 (Feb. 1938). Valencia: Editorial Guerri, 1937-38. Two issues, 4to, each 48 pp.; paper wrappers toned with spotting, no. 5 corner bent, affecting a few subsequent pages, minor interior foxing.

Two of five issues of the short-lived serial published by anarchist Miguel Giménez Igualda during a critical period in the Spanish Civil War. Most of its articles are attributed to one of Giménez’s pseudonyms or to French anarchists including Han Ryner; Giménez was also associated with the international Teatro del Pueblo movement (no. 1 reprints materials related to Isaac Steinberg, [Rodolfo González] Pacheco, and the Teatro del Pueblo in Barcelona). Other content focuses on anarchist philosophy; arts; and antifascism.

OCLC finds no physical holdings in North America.

$250

Seven leaves of hand-painted wallpaper designs

(Decorative Art) (Spain) Seven leaves of hand-painted wallpaper designs. [Catalonia]: n.p., n.d. [late 18th century, ca. 1787].

Ink, gouache, and graphite on laid paper with Honig and Van der Ley watermarks, each leaf trimmed to approx. 10-1/2 x 8-1/2 in. or sl. larger; all signed or graded either recto or verso, most by the same hand in ink, two with additional graphite signatures; one with minor water stain at edge, otherwise very good.

The leaves appear to be prize-winning examples or tests submitted for competition, perhaps by students at a professional arts school in Catalonia. They are all attributed to or signed by one of five artists: Francisco Coromina, Joseph Coromina, Joseph Fontanelles, Gaspar Ribó, and Jayme Trens. The floral and pictorial designs are expertly executed with fine detail, suggesting professional craftsmanship. Beautiful and unique examples of the rich decorative arts tradition in Catalonia.

Dated examples by Fontanelles in another collection allow us to tentatively establish a date circa 1787.

$1750

COLLECTION OF PROPAGANDA PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE SECCIÓN FEMENINA

40 silver gelatin prints: 36 approx. 5 x 7”, near fine, all stamped verso identifying two SS-PK photographers, [Bruno] Wisniewski and Ege, some with a “Sachregister” stamp and numbered pencil annotations verso; 3 smaller, approx. 3 x 4”, good; one 4 x 6” mounted to toned card, rubbed with a few scratches.

The Sección Femenina [SF] was officially recognized by General Franco following the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939. Its mandate was to organize and educate women to be full participants in the reconstruction of the nation according to Falangist/fascist principles. To this end the SF had to reconcile politically conservative and religious (Catholic) doctrine with the modern social realities of the 1940s. It found itself in the awkward position of arguing strongly for the higher education of women and girls while rejecting “feminist intellectualism”. Similarly, it had to promote the ideal woman at home while providing a model for women whose membership in the workforce was an economic necessity.

The model of ideal femininity central to this mission had to be flexible enough to contain these contradictions. The photos in this collection exemplify this elastic image of womanhood, depicting SF leaders and members engaged in the wide variety of activities promoted by the organization. These include history and music classes, field hockey, cooking, sewing, childcare, and patriotic events. As a group they reflect the inherent ambivalence of the SF: an independent and powerful network of educated women that offered its members “an unusual level of public activism, both professionally and politically”, while preaching traditional ideology.

The Nazi Waffen-SS Propagandakopanien (SS-PK) was formed in 1938 to provide wartime propaganda to domestic German audiences. SS-PK photographers were embedded in armed divisions and diplomatic corps; these photos of the Sección Femenina were probably taken between October 1940 (when Hitler and Franco met in southern Spain) and late 1941, when relations between the two countries deteriorated as it became clear Spain would not officially enter the war. The names of the two photographers appear in other SS-PK records.

$2250