{"id":46178,"date":"2000-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2000-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/formacionsimple.com\/revistasculturales\/archivos\/46178"},"modified":"2026-03-10T08:34:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T08:34:53","slug":"editorial-el-arte-y-la-politica-art-and-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/formacionsimple.com\/revistasculturales\/editorial-el-arte-y-la-politica-art-and-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial: El arte y la pol\u00edtica \/Art and politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Autor:<\/strong> Jos\u00e9 Alberto L\u00f3pez<\/p>\n

Revista:<\/strong> L\u00c1PIZ Revista Internacional de Arte n\u00ba 228<\/p>\n\n

Hace unos a\u00f1os coincid\u00ed con Jordi Gracia \u2013profesor de la Universidad de Barcelona\u2013 en M\u00e9xico, con motivo de unas conferencias que fuimos invitados a dictar en la unam. Para esc\u00e1ndalo de muchos, Gracia sostuvo en aquella disertaci\u00f3n la misma tesis en la que abunda en su reciente libro, Estado y Cultura. El despertar de una conciencia cr\u00edtica bajo el franquismo, 1940-1962 <\/em>. Gracia afirma que la modernidad cultural en Espa\u00f1a nace del estercolero franquista y que, bajo aquel sistema, se fragu\u00f3 la carrera de figuras de la talla de Juan Benet, Rafael S\u00e1nchez Ferlosio y Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Valverde. Dice tambi\u00e9n que, durante la dictadura, entre los propios \u201cvencedores\u201d, se dieron diversos brotes de disidencia intelectual y que esa actitud permiti\u00f3 una transici\u00f3n cultural m\u00e1s r\u00e1pida que la pol\u00edtica. En la reconstrucci\u00f3n democr\u00e1tica habr\u00edan participado tambi\u00e9n m\u00fasicos como Luis de Pablo, arquitectos como S\u00e1enz de Oiza o artistas como Guinovart y T\u00e0pies. <\/p>\n

No hay que olvidar, en todo caso, que, durante el franquismo, existieron movimientos art\u00edsticos acoplados al poder pol\u00edtico que impusieron una \u201ciconicidad\u201d regresiva, vinculada a un tradicionalismo exaltador de los valores de la \u201craza\u201d, de lo nacional-cat\u00f3lico, de lo popular y de lo \u201cheroico\u201d. Contempor\u00e1neos del franquismo, los reg\u00edmenes totalitarios de la Rusia sovi\u00e9tica y de la China comunista colapsaron asimismo la evoluci\u00f3n del arte en aquellos pa\u00edses. No obstante, los movimientos art\u00edsticos que les sobrevivieron extrajeron de esos sistemas motivos para la parodia o para el ataque virulento al fenecido gobierno opresor. Podemos observar esto, por ejemplo, en el arte chino de las \u00faltimas dos d\u00e9cadas, tal como se analiza en la segunda parte de nuestro acercamiento a la producci\u00f3n pl\u00e1stica actual en China, que ofrecemos en este n\u00famero de L\u00e1piz . <\/p>\n

Con respecto al arte espa\u00f1ol, sin embargo, llama la atenci\u00f3n el hecho de que, con el advenimiento de la democracia, la rancia iconograf\u00eda de la Falange y de la Dictadura franquista qued\u00f3 sepultada sin m\u00e1s, como si nunca hubiera existido. Quiz\u00e1s la explicaci\u00f3n se encuentre en la extensa vida del r\u00e9gimen franquista, que difumin\u00f3 el papel de los artistas que colaboraron activamente en la Dictadura \u2013muchos de los cuales fueron entronizados tras la transici\u00f3n democr\u00e1tica, en un acto de amnesia colectiva digno de estudio\u2013, o quiz\u00e1s se encuentre en el miedo a remover el pasado. Tal vez puede explicarse por el temor del artista a un mercado conservador, o quiz\u00e1s por el ritmo desacompasado de la transici\u00f3n pol\u00edtica, m\u00e1s lenta que la cultural, como sostiene Gracia. <\/p>\n

Sea como fuere, el arte postfranquista sigui\u00f3 derroteros muy distintos a los del arte en Rusia y China, inspir\u00e1ndose muy poco en la historia pol\u00edtica reciente de Espa\u00f1a. Algunas notables excepciones solo confirman la regla: entre \u00e9stas, podemos citar la de Francesc Torres y la de Fernando S\u00e1nchez Castillo, con sus manipulaciones simb\u00f3licas de la estatua ecuestre de Franco, tal como se ha podido ver en su reciente exposici\u00f3n en el Centre d’Art Santa M\u00f2nica , en Barcelona. <\/p>\n

Art and politics<\/strong> <\/p>\n

A few years ago, I ran into Jordi Gracia \u2013a lecturer at the Universidad de Barcelona\u2013 in Mexico, during some conferences we were invited to deliver at the unam. Gracia shocked a good part of the audience by expounding in his dissertation the same thesis he discusses in his recent book, Estado y Cultura. <\/em>El despertar de una conciencia cr\u00edtica bajo el franquismo, 1940-1962 <\/em>(State and Culture. The awakening of a critical conscience under Franco’s regime, 1940-1962). Gracia states that cultural modernity in Spain stems from the dunghill of Franco’s times and that that system forged the career of names as important as Juan Benet, Rafael S\u00e1nchez Ferlosio and Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Valverde. He also states that, during the dictatorship, there were several outbreaks of intellectual dissidence among the \u201cvictors,\u201d and that said attitude allowed for the cultural transition to take place at a greater pace than the political one. Therefore, musicians like Luis de Pablo, architects like S\u00e1enz de Oiza or artists such as Guinovart and T\u00e0pies would also have taken part in the democratic reconstruction. <\/p>\n

In any case, we must bear in mind that, during Franco’s regime, there were artistic movements attached to the political power that imposed a regressive \u201ciconicity,\u201d linked to a traditionalism that extolled the values of \u201crace,\u201d and of national-catholic, popular and \u201cheroic\u201d elements. Contemporary with Franco’s era, the totalitarian regimes of Soviet Russia and Communist China also collapsed the evolution of art in those countries. Nevertheless, the artistic movements that outlived them extracted from those systems motifs that were used to parody or violently attack the expired oppressing government. This is notable, for instance, in the Chinese art produced in the last two decades, as analysed in the second part of our approach to current art production in China, which appears in this issue of L\u00e1piz . <\/p>\n

As regards Spanish art, however, it is significant that, with the advent of democracy, the ancient iconography of the Falange <\/em> and Franco’s Dictatorship was merely buried, as if it had never existed. Perhaps the answer lies in the long life of Franco’s regime, which blurred the role of the artists that collaborated actively with the Dictatorship \u2013many of which were enthroned after the transition to democracy, in an act of collective amnesia that well deserves to be studied\u2013, or perhaps it could be due to fear of stirring up the past. It could possibly be explained because of the anxiety artists feel towards a conservative market, or the irregular rhythm of the political transition, which developed at a slower tempo than the cultural transition, as Gracia argues. <\/p>\n

Whichever the case, art in post-Franco times followed very different footsteps to art in Russia and China, hardly taking its inspiration from Spain’s recent political history. Some memorable exceptions only prove the rule: for instance, Francesc Torres and Fernando S\u00e1nchez Castillo, with their symbolical manipulations of Franco’s equestrian statue, on display at their recent exhibition at the Centre d’Art Santa M\u00f2nica , in Barcelona. <\/p>\n

Translation: Laura F. Farhall <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Autor: Jos\u00e9 Alberto L\u00f3pez Revista: L\u00c1PIZ Revista Internacional de Arte n\u00ba 228 Hace unos a\u00f1os coincid\u00ed con Jordi Gracia \u2013profesor de la Universidad de Barcelona\u2013 en M\u00e9xico, con motivo de unas conferencias que fuimos invitados a dictar en la unam. Para esc\u00e1ndalo de muchos, Gracia sostuvo en aquella disertaci\u00f3n la misma tesis en la que […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[444,351,400],"class_list":["post-46178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articulos","tag-arte","tag-articulo-html","tag-lapiz-revista-internacional-de-arte"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/formacionsimple.com\/revistasculturales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/formacionsimple.com\/revistasculturales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/formacionsimple.com\/revistasculturales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/formacionsimple.com\/revistasculturales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/formacionsimple.com\/revistasculturales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/formacionsimple.com\/revistasculturales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48403,"href":"http:\/\/formacionsimple.com\/revistasculturales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46178\/revisions\/48403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/formacionsimple.com\/revistasculturales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/formacionsimple.com\/revistasculturales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/formacionsimple.com\/revistasculturales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}