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Artists in Arms
Picasso’s Guernica
toured the world in
order to raise funds
for the Republicans.
The painting has since
been returned to Spain
Author
Bio
PETER MONTEATH
Peter Monteath
is from Brisbane,
Australia, and was
educated in both
Australia and Germany.
He has published widely on
international responses to the
Spanish Civil War. Currently he is
Professor of History at Flinders
University in Adelaide.
Trouble had been brewing in Spain
throughout the first half of 1936.
Elections held in February had brought
to power a left-wing government
committed to reforms, which threatened
the interests of the privileged.
A group of reactionary army officers decided that
the best way to avert that threat was to overthrow
the government. One of the plotters, destined
to become their leader, was General Francisco
Franco. He and others prepared what they called
a pronunciamiento, a pronouncement. In a short,
sharp display of force, the military would simply
‘pronounce’ that the Republican government was
deposed and the military had taken over.
That, at least, was the plan. However, when the
government and large sections of the Spanish
population resisted the coup when it was launched
on 17 July, it became clear that the generals had
failed. They could claim control over parts of Spain,
but the Republican government had survived to
rule over the rest.
So began a bloody civil war that would
ultimately cost some half a million Spanish lives. In
its origins it was Spanish, and it was fought entirely
on Spanish soil, but it was also a war that caught
the world’s attention. Across the globe it seemed
that the great ideological battles of the day were
being fought out on the battlefields of the Spanish
Civil War.
Whether they were in Spain or elsewhere,
writers and artists could not remain untouched by
the dramatic events that unfolded on the Iberian
peninsula. Some of them felt so passionately that
they took up arms, joining such organisations as
the International Brigades to defend the Republic.
Others chose to use their artistic and literary
talents as weapons in the service of a cause. They
hoped that their words and images could make
a real difference to the outcome of the war. For
the great majority of them, that meant crushing
the generals and defeating fascism. More than
that, it was the fervent belief of many that art and
literature could promote fundamental political and
social change in Spain – perhaps even revolution.
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