This 1979 offset lithograph created by José Ramón Sánchez for the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Workers’ Socialist Party of Spain) is a sample from the political posters featured in the “Art of Democracy: Fifty Years of Spain’s Political Posters (1930-1980s),” an exhibit opening on July 15, 2005 in the Center for Southwest Research in Zimmerman Library on the UNM main campus.
Presenting a visual narrative of Spain’s political history from their civil war (1936-39) to a new era in the 1970s and 1980s, the exhibition marks the 30th anniversary of Spain’s return to democracy in 1975.
An opening reception at 6:30 p.m. will be followed by a lecture at 7 p.m. by David Holtby, visiting scholar at the Center for Regional Studies and co-curator of the exhibit.
Holtby says, “By using bright colors and depicting diverse groups in society, José Ramón Sánchez powerfully suggests a vibrant and hopeful future for all Spaniards.”
To CSWR director Mike Kelly, “This exhibition offers an engaging lesson in the twentieth century political history of Spain. Students, faculty, and the general public will not want to miss it.”
Material for the exhibit is drawn from the center’s Spanish Civil War Collection, acquired from David Gordon in 1977. Gordon was a volunteer with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who fought for republican Spain against the fascist forces of Francisco Franco.
Teresa Eckmann, a post-doctoral research scholar at the Center for Southwest Research co-curated the exhibit. She has been cataloging and researching the Sam L. Slick collection since 2001.
Slick, a former Spanish professor at the University of Southern Mississippi who collected political posters, views them as a key documentary source for interpreting Iberian and Latin American social and political reality.
Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627