Dimensions: unconfirmed: 491 x 501 mm
Copyright: © The estate of the André Fougeron | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: André Fougeron’s drawing, simply titled "Homage to Franco!!!", presents us with a stark, unsettling vision. The dimensions are roughly 491 by 501 millimeters. Editor: My first impression is one of dread. The skeletal structure, combined with the distorted figures, creates a truly grotesque scene. Curator: Precisely. The composition relies on the stark contrast between the implied triangular framework of bones and the chaotic mass of figures within. The artist uses line and shading to create depth and texture, further emphasizing the macabre nature of the subject. Editor: The skeletal frame is a potent symbol. Are we meant to see Franco's regime as one built on death and decay, a structure supported by the bones of the oppressed? The central figure atop the bizarre horse clearly evokes a sense of grotesque power. Curator: One could certainly argue that Fougeron's technique, the almost feverish quality of the line work, reinforces that interpretation. The artist’s choice of graphite on paper allows for subtle gradations, highlighting the formal tension. Editor: Indeed. This image resonates deeply. It’s a powerful reminder of the horrors of fascism and the enduring legacy of political violence. Curator: I agree. Fougeron's considered composition serves to underscore the very real and damaging cost of ideology. Editor: This drawing shows how art can capture and communicate the darkest aspects of the human experience.
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tate 3 months ago
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/fougeron-homage-to-franco-t07709
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tate 3 months ago
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Homage to Franco!!! is more bitterly satirical than the other two drawings by André Fougeron owned by Tate, The Four Horsemen and The Tournament (T07707, T07708). As the title makes clear, its subject is the Falangist leader in the Spanish Civil War, General Francisco Franco (1892-1975). An arch of bones forms a gateway for a horse and rider to trample over a pregnant woman and child surrounded by pigs. The victorious horseman, with blackened wings and a pyramidal hat which covers his head, is grotesque. In this satirical image of victory, the destructiveness of the Falangists makes their successes hollow. Fougeron's inscription places the drawing in November 1937, shortly after Franco strengthened his grip on northern Spain by seizing the Republican government's stronghold of Gijon. As an active Communist and an associate of the party's Maison de la Culture in Paris, Fougeron was particularly concerned with opposing fascism through his art. From the mid-1930s he was committed to the International Communist Party's Socialist Realism, although this was initially interpreted quite liberally. The conjunction of drawing and satire in Homage to Franco!!! may suggest that Fougeron had some publication in mind for its wider dissemination. Certainly the savagery of his satire recalls the etching begun in January 1937 by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) entitled The Dream and Lie of Franco. This was similarly aimed at Franco himself and imagined him as a ridiculous porcine horseman. While Fougeron acknowledged his debt to Picasso, and especially to Guernica (1937, Museo de Reina Sofía), the bones of Homage to Franco!!! are also reminiscent of the distended limbs included by Salvador Dalí (1904-89) in Soft Construction with Boiled Beans, 1936 (Philadelphia Museum of Art), an image which had been reproduced in the periodical Minotaure in October 1936 as Spain: Premonition of Civil War. Further reading:André Fougeron, 'André Fougeron se souvient …', in Paris-Paris, exhibition catalogue, Musée national d'art moderne, Centre George Pompidou, Paris 1981, pp.50-1, reproduced p.46 Matthew GaleAugust 2001
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