| This page needs work. Please help us by expanding it. If you aren't sure how to help, check the article guide Format and Content Reason: This page is under construction. |
The Renovador Movement (Galician: Movemento Renovador) was an art movement that emerged in the first half of the 20th century, particularly during the 1920s, in the region of Galicia as well as the Galician diaspora in the Americas. The group of artists associated with this movement were known as Os Renovadores ("The Renewers") or Os Novos ("The New Ones"), which reflected their desire to renew the visual arts and introduce new forms of artistic expression in Galician culture.
History[]
Background[]
The cause of the Renovador Movement is rooted in several historical and socio-political events that occurred in the region of Galicia over the centuries. Understanding the historical context behind the movement is pretty much essential to appreciate the motivations and expression of the artists.
During the Middle Ages, the Galician-Portuguese language once came to be the lingua franca accross the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. However, when the kingdoms of Galicia and Leon became part Castile, the Castilian language (nowadays better known as Spanish) was also introduced to the regions. Following the union of kingdoms of Castile and Aragón, the Spanish Empire became an united nation, and the Castilian language became the national language and its use was considered prestigious, unlike other languages spoken within the country (including Galician itself, Catalan, Basque, Aragonese, and Astur-Leonese, as well as countless languages native to overseas colonies). In Galician history, the period when Castilian came to be the dominant language is known as the Séculos Escuros ("Dark Centuries"), corresponding to the 16th to 18th centuries. At the time, the Galician language was hardly used in public administration or literary works, and it didn't even have a standarized grammar yet. Galician remained as a language spoken by the lower classes, strictly used in daily life rather than formal contexts.
Portrait of Galician writer Rosalía de Castro by Luis Sellier (c. 1880).
During the 19th century, a linguistical revival movement arose, known as the Rexurdimento ("Resurgence")[1]. It officially began when Rosalía de Castro released one of her most iconic literary works: "Cantares gallegos". This movement was influenced by romantic nationalism and focused on literature and poetry, developing a standard grammar for the Galician language, and aiming for its recognition as an official language within Spain. During this time period, Galician regionalism was the strongest it had ever been, coinciding with a similar language revival movement in Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearics: the Renaixença. During the Age of Enlightenment, regional languages came to be seen as a positive part of local culture in Spain, contrasting with other European countries which rather promoted universalization or a centralized culture. The most renowned Galician writers of this time period include Castelao, Rosalía de Castro, Emilia Pardo Bazán, Eduardo Pondal and Curros Enríquez. Their literature would heavily influence the works of the Renovadores.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a significant wave of Galician emigration to the Americas surged, primarily to countries like Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba and Venezuela. Between 1850 and 1960, over two million Galicians left their region seeking a better life[2]. This was primarily caused by the limited economic opportunities or poverty, and later on, political persecution. Many of these Galician settlers maintained strong ties to their culture and homeland regardless of their birth place.
Pro-Galician autonomy poster designed by Díaz Baliño (1936). It is one of the most well known posters of the Renovador Movement.
The 1930s were a very complex and politically unstable period in Spain, characterized by constant disagreements and political disputes between republicans or liberals, nationalists or conservatives, fascists, regionalists and anarchists. During the brief period of the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1936), Galician regionalism was at its peak and they aimed to achieve regional autonomy as well as linguistical rights. The Spanish Civil War caused millions of citizens to flee Spain and relocate to other countries, and the many artists associated with the Renovador Movement were no exception. During Francisco Franco's dictatorship, linguistical persecution became common, and in extreme cases, people would get executed for their ideology. These violations of human rights prevailed during the first decades of Francoism, and linguistical freedom was officially introduced in the 70s following the Spanish transition to democracy.
Predecessors[]
During the Rexurdimento, despite the fact it was mainly centered around linguistical revival, literature and poetry, there were some efforts to reincorporate Galician culture into the local arts and other fields essential for intellectualism. Such examples include the development of Baroque architecture in Santiago de Compostela.
Coinciding with the Age of Enlightenment, Galician writers and intellectuals such as Benito Jerónimo Feijóo and Martín Sarmiento became really representative authors of Spanish enlightenment philosophy. In the plastic arts, styles like Romanticism, Realism and Post-Impressionism were frequently used to depict Galician landscapes in art, with heavy influences from Paul Cézanne's works. Many of the Galician painters from this time period were really promising and precede what would later evolve into the Renovador Movement, although during the 1900s, a significant number of these artists died at at a young age (typically aged 30 years old or younger) due to the outbreaks of the tuberculosis disease worldwide. The term Xeración Doente (roughly "Suffering Generation") was coined in 1922 to refer to these artists who passed away from the disease.
Most paintings preceding the Renovador movement were painted between the 1880s and 1900s.
.jpg "Emilia Pardo Bazan (1896).jpg (196 KB)")
_-_Rom%C3%A1n_Navarro_(1854-1928).jpg "Baño de Cabalos (1871-1920) - Román Navarro (1854-1928).jpg (355 KB)")
Emergence[]
The emergence of Os Renovadores (the group of artists, intellectuals, architects and writers associated with this movement) can be attributed to the importance of Avant-garde movements in Europe during the early 20th century, also known as the "vanguards". Artists such as Picasso, Miró, and Dalí, who were the most representative artists, inspired Galician intellectuals and artists such as the Xeración Nós group to connect Galicia with the broader European cultural scene. This aspiration led to the emergence of the "Generation of 1925" (Galician: Xeración de 1925), mainly composed of artists born in the 1900s, who sought to modernize Galician artistic expression, including but not limited to theatre and poetry. They also pioneered "Neotrobadorismo" and "Hilozoísmo", two movements within Galician poetry.
Galician plastic artists who began their careers in the early 1900s maintained a connection to the legacy of older artists like Díaz Baliño, Castelao, and Asorey. However, they aimed to revitalize and democratize Galician traditions, making them accessible to a wider audience not only in Galicia but also in Spain and around the world. This period saw increased collaboration between writers and artists, often centered on the newspaper El Pueblo Gallego, which had written works published in both Spanish and Galician languages.
One of the most important moments of this movement occurred in 1921 when Daniel Castelao received a scholarship from Santiago Ramón y Cajal to study the European avant-garde ideas and art. During his travels, Castelao began to reflect on the relationship between national and universal artistic expression. He rejected the notion that interacting with the broader European artistic scene inherently required abandoning regional identities and local culture.[3] His opinions, published on the magazine "Nós", supported the idea that Galician art, just like Spanish art, could contribute to the global artistic scene and not remain as a simple local product.
"The people of Spain think that in order to be universal they have to stop being Spanish at heart, and us who make national art (Galician) are asked to kill our regional spirit and that we should be "Spanish"; and now I ask: if you take care of the fact that art has no borders, therefore that means it should be cosmopolitan. Why don't you ask us to kill the Spanish spirit? Well, if Spanish art can make it beyond Spain, so can the arts of Galicia, the Basque Country, Catalonia..." ― Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao - Source: "Diario íntimo" (1921)
To Castelao, art can be universal and cosmopolitan, but it should also be linked to the cultural heritage of the artist. When he interacted with the avant-garde scene of Central Europe, he made negative personal comments about Picasso, who had moved away from his regional roots and developed Cubism in Paris, after he had trained and studied the arts in Catalonia and Galicia. Castelao also favored the vanguard movements of Russia over the Western European ones because he perceived them as being "linked to the people". This perspective also resonated with Manuel Antonio, a poet from the same town as him, who also wanted to renew the Galician visual arts by taking inspiration from their very culture.
Other Galician artists who travelled extensively during their careers were Carlos Maside and Manuel Colmeiro. Maside's works were exhibitioned in the United States by the Carnegie institute. He also made notable posters advocating for Galician autonomy within the Spanish state (pictured in the "Historical Context" section). Following the Spanish Civil War, Manuel Colmeiro was exiled to Argentina, where he kept developing his art. One of his most notable artworks are the murals of Galerías Pacífico, a mall located in Buenos Aires (pictured in the infobox). Those murals used nuances relating to Argentine culture and society, and he collaborated with other Argentine-European artists during their creation. He also interacted with other figures like Seoane, Rafael Dieste, and Rafael Alberti. Colmeiro eventually moved to Paris in 1949, and during the 60s, his works were exhibited in London and he won several awards. Following the Spanish transition to democracy, he relocated back to Galicia in 1989.
Arts[]
Visual Arts[]
TBA
Sculpture[]
TBA
Theatre[]
TBA
Poetry[]
TBA
Satire and Bande Dessinée[]
TBA
Surrealism[]
TBA
Legacy[]
Typography[]
The Renovador Movement influenced the development of two distinct typographic fonts: Gallaecia Castelo (created by Carlos Núñez) and Vila Morena (created by Ipanema Gráfica)[4][5]. The Gallaecia Castelo font is arguably the most popular of the two. Named after the former Roman province of Gallaecia, it takes a lot of inspiration from folklore and the distant Celtic past, primarily based upon traditional typography found in stones. This classical element is combined with the modernistic ideals of the Bauhaus and Ulm schools, classic serif fonts and decorative elements like flourishes, spirals or dots. These fonts were often used in literature, journalism, and book cover arts, and nowadays they continue to the popularly used in Galicia for decorative purposes, such as the logos of brands like SARGADELOS, dairy products, or local restaurants.
Literature[]
TBA
Infuential Figures[]
- Ángel Johán - poet, writer, painter
- Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao - painter, illustrator, writer, poet, satirist, playwright, politician/intellectual, considered the "father" of Galician nationalism
- Arturo Souto - painter
- Camilo Díaz Baliño - graphic artist, painter, muralist, writer, politician/intellectual
- Carlos Maside - painter
- Elena Gago - painter
- Fernández Mazas or Dichi - painter, illustrator, humorist, writer
- Francisco Asorey - sculptor
- Isaac Díaz Pardo - painter, ceramist, editor, intellectual
- José Frau - painter, academic
- Manuel Colmeiro - painter
- Manuel Torres - painter
- María Antonia Dans - painter
- Luís Seoane - painter, journalist, editor, illustrator, ceramist, engraver
- Urbano Lugrís - painter, writer, politician, co-founder of the Real Academia Galega
- Virxilio Blanco - painter
- Xosé Eiroa - sculptor
- Xosé Otero Abeledo or Laxeiro - painter
Gallery[]
TBA