The Image of a Modern
Spain through the Artistic
Discourse Post-Franco
Yarileidy Leon Suarez
Cal State University of Monterey Bay
Capstone Project Spring 2013
Advisor: Prof. Donaldo Urioste
Abstract
Spain suffered a dictatorship for almost 50 years under the
totalitarian power of the General Francisco Franco. During this
period, Spain was isolated cultural, economic, and politically
from the rest of the world. After Franco’s death, Spanish people
decided, unanimously, to stop another government of this type.
A democratic government was an idea adopted by politicians and
artists. The last group, especially, contributed, expanded, and
created a New Spain. The image of a Modern Spain was the
solution for rescuing a country and its idiosyncrasy after the
silence and obscurity of Franco’s years. The objective of this
project is to analyze how the artistic discourse during the period
of transition to Democratic Spain create the image of a Modern
Spain.
Outline
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Introduction
Society and Art
Art and Youth
Dictatorship and Spain citizen
Contemporary history of Spain 1936 -1993
Movida Madrileña “Madrid Scene”
Pedro Almodovar
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
• Common subjects about Spain

Flamenco
 Pedro Almodovar
 Transcendental Spanish writer Federico Garcia Lorca
 Cities: Madrid, Barcelona, or Seville
• Less common
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Civil War
 Franco’s dictatorship
 Transitional Period towards a Democratic Spain
Society and Art
“ The action of the situation’s subject provokes a change in the
situation’s conditions to which situation it belongs to; such
change at the same time varies the subject’s possibilities to
react in the future.”
Enrique Tierno Galván Sociedad y Situación. Murcia. Aula de Ideas. 1995.
Translation by Yarileidy León Suarez
• Artistic intellectual commitment with society.
• Art and artistic discourse.
• Movement of social art.
Society and Art_ Commitment artistic
intellectual with society
Art:
• Is a communicative process
• Constructs sociocultural
reality and a symbolic
universe.
• Reflects the every day life
and its conflicts through
form and figurative,
epistemological,
semantically, philosophical,
semiotic language, etc.
Society and Art_ Art and artistic discourse
Art and artistic
discourse concepts are
polemic:
• Change based on culture,
time, and who produce
and consume art.
Examples of artistic
discourse:
• Format, shapes, colors,
aesthetics.
Society and Art_ Movement of social art
• Necessary to fill the
empty cultural
environment in Spain
after Franco.
• Government supports
and promotes social and
artistic movements.
• Slogans: “España está de
rola” or “España está de
moda”.
Spain is fashionable and it
is on the go.
Art and Youth
• Vanguard :
The leading position in any movement or field, or the people
who occupy such a position, e.g. the vanguard of modern
literature.
• Desire for Freedom:
Young Spanish post Franco population restored the spirit of
belonging, citizenship, nationalism, and modified the Spanish
old traditions by introducing modern life style more alike the
western European countries.
Dictatorship and Spanish Citizen
• Dictatorship not only establishes a totalitarian and repressive
government; it also creates a social consciousness of fear and
introspection
• Franco’s Death: metamorphosis of Spain citizen
• Social consciousness in relationship with freedom and
determination
• Globalization
Contemporary History of Spain
1936-1993
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Spanish Civil War 1936-1939
General Francisco Franco’s dictatorship 1939-1975
Death of Franco, 1975
Transitional Period 1975-1993
Democratic Spain 1993 to Present
Movida Madrileña_ Madrid Scene
• Beginning
• Significance
• Precepts
Movida Madrileña_ Beginning
• 1977-1985
• In Madrid
• Enrique Tierno Galvan,
Madrid major supported
the movement
• Expanded other cities such
as Bilbao, Vigo, Barcelona,
and Seville
Movida Madrileña_ Significance
• Social stimulation
• Fashion impulse
• The “street” plays a
protagonist role: space
for free expression
• Madrid becomes the
hypocenter of
entertainment culture
and party scene
• Music industry
experienced an
imminent growth:
Mecano, Alaska, and
other musical groups.
Movida Madrileña_ Precepts
• Movement based more
on style than substance
• Explosion of repressed
feelings of freedom
• Sexual liberation
• Tolerance to alcohol and
drugs
• Disruption of the
traditional and
conventional Franco’s
Spain
• Spanish art opens up to
postmodern technics
and fundamentals: fetish
and kitsch
Pedro Almodovar
• La Movida Madrileña
• Social themes and his filmography
Pedro Almodovar_ Movida Madrilena
• Influence of Movida
Madrilena
• Death of Franco
becomes a turning point
for creation
• Uses elements of
Spanish picaresque novel
such as antiheroic and
antiepic tone characters
• Founded EL DESEO film
production S.A. and
financed his own movies
Pepi, Lucy, Bom y otras chicas del monton
(1980).
La Ley del Deseo (1987)
Pedro Almodovar_ Social themes and
filmography
• Transgression:
homosexually expose
in mass media
• Female characters
disrupt the
traditional image of
patriarchal system
• Destroy the image of
family structure
established by Franco
Pedro Almodovar_ Social themes and
filmography
• Homosexuality
• Nude
• Kitsch
• Taboo and
trangressions
Conclusion
• As a mode of conclusion, the cultural
transformation Spain experienced after Franco’s
death, during the transitional period to
Democratic Spain, created the foundations for
the society we know today. This project has
allowed me to learn more in-depth about
Spanish society. I hope the same happened to
you. Thanks for your attention, and keep enjoy
the Capstone festival.
Fototeca
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www.biography.com
videotecaalternativa.ne
cuabroad.cua.edu
www.dailytelegraph.com.au
www.fanpop.com
www.demotix.com
autoreprezentari.blogspot.com
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/cultura
http://elpais.com/diario/2011/06/16/sociedad/
http://www.google.com/search?q=arte+social&client=safari&rls
www.laguerracivil-4b.blogspot.com
www.escuelalibredehistoriadores.wordpress.com
http://historiauniversal.carpetapedagogica.com/2011/03/guerra-civil-espanola-1936-1939.html
l72vaplm.wordpress.com
federicokrampack.tumblr.com
blogs.periodistadigital.com
Bibliografía
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