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Posters 'Shout from the Wall' in Art Museum Exhibition

 

The Internationals--United with the Spanish We Fight the Invader is among the powerful posters and photographs from the Spanish Civil War now on display at the Art Museum.

Dramatic posters and photographs from the Spanish Civil War, brought back to the United States in the 1930s by American members of the famed Abraham Lincoln Brigade, will be on display in the Art Museum January 27 through March 13.

The Shouts from the Wall exhibition includes images from the Spanish Civil War, in which 40,000 volunteers (including 2,800 Americans) traveled to Spain to fight for the democratically elected government that had been overthrown by fascist forces.

During that war, wall posters were a primary means of communication among political parties, union members, departments of the Spanish government, and the general population. As such, they are of enormous historical and documentary significance. As Lincoln Brigade veteran Anthony Toney notes, "Not only are they powerfully moving but also aesthetically beautiful and innovative, representing the varied crosscurrents of modern and traditional art, yet remaining very Spanish."

The exhibition has four major sections, which focus on broad international issues such as the struggle between democracy and fascism; the relationship between posters by popular illustrators and the surrealist trends in painting of the period; political and social issues; and a personal view of the war shown in photographs of and letters from Lincoln Brigade members.

The posters and photos are drawn from the Lincoln Brigade's archive (ALBA) at Brandeis University, and the show was organized by historians Peter Carroll and Cary Nelson with assistance from ALBA board member and MHC history professor Dan Czitrom.