Viva Octubre! Dessins sur la Revolution Espagnole [WITH 20 FULL-PAGE WOODCUTS]
Brussels: E. P. I., printed by Bolyn, 1934. Third French edition. Softcover. 1/1000. Quarto (11 x 8 3/4"). 3 leaves (Text), 20 leaves (Plates), (2)p. Original illustrated stapled stiff wraps with red and black lettering to front cover. Cover illustration: "Libertaria" a young, sixteen year old girl, killed near the machine gun she defended with until the last moment at the North Station in Oviedo, occupied by the revolutionaries.
Splendidly illustrated throughout with 20 full-page woodcuts (7 x 5"). "Viva Octubre" (Long live October) is Helios Gomez's third album in which he pays tribute to the revolutionary events that shook Spain, especially in Asturia, in October of 1934. Most of these woodcuts were designed from October to December 1934, aboard the "Uruguay," a floating prison in the port of Barcelona. Introduction by Jean Cassou.
"Helios Gomez is a superb exponent of the graphic splendor that was born in the heat of the aesthetic avant-garde and that became popular during the years of the Republic, showing its influence both on political posterism and on commercial iconography. The style of Helios Gomez is based on the unmistakable use of a violent black and white that, influenced by cubism, seeks to construct images with volume and dynamism, figurativ but not without a dreamlike dimension that sublime the allegations and claims of the particular universe of the artist." (From the Helios Gomez Foundation).
From the library of Rudolf de Jong, a Dutch historian and writer on the history of anarchism and the Spanish Revolution; one of the original members of the Provo Movement in 1965. Text in French. Wraps with light wear along edges, with light staining and rubbing. Centerfold loose. Staples with light rust. Wraps in overall good, interior in very good condition. g to vg. Item #47224
Helios Gomez (1905–1956) was a Spanish painter and anarchist activist. He is considered to be one of the most influential Spanish graphic artists of the first half of the 20th Century. Gomez was the first president and founder of the professional draftsmen syndicate in 1936 in Barcelona. The goal of the syndicate was to defend the Republic through activist graphic posters. He fought in the Spanish Civil War and was part of the "Retirada," a massive migration of some 500,000 Spanish warriors to France. He was deported to Algeria held in a concentration camp, but managed to escape to Spain. In 1946 he was arrested and jailed without trial or conviction in Barcelona. Gomez is also known for his fresco in the Barcelona jail (Virgin of Mercy), located near the cell where prisoners were held who had been sentenced to death. He was to be discharged in 1950, but released only in 1954.
"Helios Gomez is a superb exponent of the graphic splendor that was born in the heat of the aesthetic avant-garde and that became popular during the years of the Republic, showing its influence both on political posterism and on commercial iconography. The style of Helios Gomez is based on the unmistakable use of a violent black and white that, influenced by cubism, seeks to construct images with volume and dynamism, figurativists but not without a dreamlike dimension that sublime the allegations and claims of the particular universe of the artist." (From the Helios Gomez Foundation).
Price: $1,750.00