{"id":17485,"date":"2019-11-08T12:21:57","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T12:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/?p=17485"},"modified":"2019-12-02T11:07:54","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T11:07:54","slug":"an-useful-photograph-by-oriol-maspons-the-school-of-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/en\/an-useful-photograph-by-oriol-maspons-the-school-of-barcelona\/","title":{"rendered":"An Useful Photograph by Oriol Maspons. The School of Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ra\u00fal Gimeno and Yolanda Ruiz<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Jaime Gil de Biedma, Carlos Barral, Jos\u00e9 Agust\u00edn Goytisolo and Josep Maria Castellet in the foyer of the publishing house Seix Barral<\/a><\/em>, Oriol Maspons, 1961. Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, Long-term loan by the artist, 2011. \u00a9 Arxiu Fotogr\u00e0fic Oriol Maspons, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Until 12 January 2020, will be able the exhibition Oriol Maspons: Useful Photography \/ 1949-1995<\/a><\/em>, which takes an extensive look at the photographer\u2019s work. In the exhibition there is a photograph of the poets Jaime Gil de Biedma<\/a>, Jos\u00e9 Agust\u00edn Goytisolo<\/a> and Carlos Barral<\/a> posing with the literary critic Josep Maria Castellet<\/a> at the entrance to Industrias Gr\u00e1ficas Seix Barral (\u201cthe dark house in calle Provenza\u201d, as Barral put it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This photograph by Maspons in context<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The men photographed formed the nucleus of the Group of Barcelona (known later as the School of Barcelona), part of the \u201cGeneration of the 50s<\/a>\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Group of Barcelona, aware of the city\u2019s isolation with respect to Madrid, the literary capital, decided to implement a generational strategy to make sure of a place on the literary map for themselves. Jaime Gil de Biedma, for example, in conversation with E. Sylvester (1979), said that, \u201cGroups of poets are not generally a true historical fact, but a voluntary creation, more than anything an enterprise of \u2018literary\u2019 politics.\u201d Later, with Jes\u00fas Fern\u00e1ndez Palacios (1983), he admitted that, \u201cat a given moment we decided to launch ourselves as a group, in an operation that was all about publicity, not literature.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We believe there are five decisive moments<\/strong> of the promotional strategy to help the School of Barcelona to establish itself in the vanguard of Spanish poetry<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The five decisive moment of the promotional strategy of the School of Barcelona<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1. The tribute to Antonio Machado<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In February 1959 the Group of\nBarcelona took part in the tribute to Antonio Machado, held in Cotlliure, the\ntown where the poet is buried. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In imitation of the tribute to G\u00f3ngora<\/a> and the later anthology of Gerardo Diego<\/a> , who helped the baptism of the Generation of \u201827<\/a>, the homage to Machado served as a generational baptism to this new promotion of writers that will be known as Generation of the 50<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Masthead of issue 148 of the journal \u00cdnsula <\/a><\/em>and reproduction of the article \u201cA los veinte a\u00f1os de la muerte de Antonio Machado\u201d, on page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Among those in attendance, there were Blas de Otero, Caballero Bonald<\/a>, \u00c1ngel Gonz\u00e1lez<\/a>, Jos\u00e9 \u00c1ngel Valente<\/a>, Gil de Biedma, Jos\u00e9 Agust\u00edn Goytisolo, Carlos Barral, Alfons Costafreda, Manolo Millares<\/a>, Josep Guinovart<\/a> and Joan Ferrat\u00e9. Their names did not appear in the article to avoid possible reprisals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Jaime Gil de Biedma and Carlos\nBarral stress, in their respective diaries, the tribute\u2019s usefulness for\npublicity reasons. The former writes, \u201cReturned yesterday from Colliure. The tribute\ndiscreet \u2013 moving even. The group was very good, interesting and fun. For us, moreover,\na group affirmation.\u201d (24\/2\/1959.) The latter confirms that, \u201cthe\nthing about the generational front is, nevertheless, great fun and not totally pointless,\nit would seem,\u201d but he adds that literary politics is too demanding:\n\u201cSince Colliure I\u2019ve been spending all my time\nin generational politics. Interviews, common front, publications policy, anthology\u2026,\netc. So I\u2019m not getting anything done. \u201c<\/strong>Luna de agosto<\/em>\u201d<\/strong> is still unfinished.\u201d\n(9\/3\/1959.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This commemoration was reflected by Jos\u00e9\nAgust\u00edn Goytisolo in the poem Homenaje en\nCollioure. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00abAqu\u00ed, junto a la l\u00ednia
divisoria, este d\u00eda
veintid\u00f3s de febrero,
yo no he venido para
llorar sobre tu muerte,
sin\u00f3 que alzo mi vaso
y brindo por tu claro
camino, y por que siga
tu palabra encendida,
como una estrella, sobre
nosotros \u00bfnos recuerdas?,
Aquellos ni\u00f1os flacos,
tiznados, que jugaban
tambi\u00e9n a guerras, cuando,
grave y l\u00facido, ibas,
don Antonio, al encuentro
de esta tierra que yaces.\u00bb <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u201cHomenaje en Collioure\u201d, by\nJos\u00e9 Agust\u00edn Goytisolo\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. The poetic conversations at the Formentor<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

From 18 to 25 May 1959 \u201cCela\u2019s \u2018Poetic Conversations\u2019\u201d (as Carlos Barral called them) were held at the Hotel Formentor in Mallorca. The text, virtually a declaration of intent, which announces, presents and describes these poetic conversations appeared in that year\u2019s March issue of Papeles de Son Armadans<\/a><\/em>: \u201cThe poets will come to the Conversations to talk and to have a drink in love and companionship. Wine \u2013 like the moon and impossible loves \u2013 is a good friend to verse. Here nobody is deceived. The Conversations are not intended to be anything more \u2013 or less, either \u2013 than what their name says: a private gathering in which that \u2013 and only that \u2013 which popular wisdom calls \u2018our things\u2019 will be talked about familiarly.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cover of the March 1959 issue of Papeles de Son Armadans<\/em> and image of the poster for the event, by the artist Millares, reproduced in the journal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Group of Barcelona was present in those conversations thanks to Goytisolo\u2019s friendship with Caballero Bonald<\/a> and Camilo Jos\u00e9 Cela<\/a>, subeditor and editor, respectively, of Papeles de Son Armadans.<\/em>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Issue 151 of the journal \u00cdnsula <\/em>reported the meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00cdnsula<\/em>, no. 151, p. 10<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As Goytisolo did in Homenaje en Collioure<\/em>, so did Jaime Gil de Biedma, using a collective experience as the theme for a poem. He writes in his diary: \u201cI have been thinking, all these days, about the feasibility of \u2018Conversaciones po\u00e9ticas\u2019, the poem about Formentor that I promised to write for Cela.\u201d (23\/7\/1959.) The poem began with the group\u2019s arrival at the poetic retreat organized by Cela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00abPredominaba un sentimiento
de general jubilaci\u00f3n.
Abrazos,
inesperadas preguntas de amistad
y salutaci\u00f3n
de alg\u00fan maestro
\u2012borrosamente af\u00edn a su retrato
en la Antolog\u00eda de Gerardo Diego\u2012
nos recibieron al entrar.\u00bb <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u201cConversaciones po\u00e9ticas\u201d, by\nJaime Gil de Biedma \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. The reading at the Ateneo de Madrid<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As a result of the conversations at the Formentor, the members of the School of Barcelona established connections with other national and international poets. Through these, Goytisolo, Barral and Gil de Biedma were invited to read their poems at the Ateneo de Madrid, in the \u201cLiterary Thursdays\u201d directed by Jos\u00e9 Hierro<\/a>. This is what Jaime Gil de Biedma says about it in his diary the 29\/10\/1959.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A small article, appearing in issue\n156 of the journal \u00cdnsula,<\/em> confirmed its\nsuccess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cLos jueves literarios del Ateneo\u201d, \u00cdnsula<\/em>, issue 156<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For the launch of the Barcelona group the reading in Madrid was very important, because it was the centre of the literary scene. But the reading was not the only promotional event of the week. On Sunday, All Saints Day, as Gil de Biedma writes in his diary, they took part in a \u201cgroup expedition to the civilian cemetery in Madrid, to visit the tombs of Baroja and Pablo Iglesias.\u201d Jaime Gil de Biedma\u2019s poem Un d\u00eda de difuntos<\/em> recreates this expedition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00ab\u00c9ramos unos cuantos
intelectuales, compa\u00f1eros j\u00f3venes,
los que aquella ma\u00f1ana lentamente avanz\u00e1bamos
entre la multitud, camino de los cementerios.\u00bb <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUn d\u00eda de difuntos\u201d by Jaime Gil de Biedma <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Josep Maria Castellet\u2019s anthology <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Group of Barcelona\u2019s consolidation came in 1960 with the appearance of Castellet\u2019s anthology Veinte a\u00f1os de poes\u00eda espa\u00f1ola<\/a><\/em> (Twenty Years of Spanish Poetry) and the creation of the Literaturasa publishing house\u2019s Colliure<\/em> collection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of putting together an anthology to promote the group went back a long way, from when the writers were contributing to the magazine Laye<\/a><\/em>. In a letter of 28 September 1955, Jaime Gil de Biedma asks Carlos Barral about Laye<\/em>\u2019s project for an anthology: \u00abWhat do you know about Laye anthology<\/em>? Get back to me and, if it is already decided, tell me deadlines for delivery of originals and conditions\u00bb. Later, Carlos Barral also refers in his memoirs to the stillborn Laye<\/em> anthology, the precedent for Veinte a\u00f1os de poes\u00eda espa\u00f1ola<\/em>: \u00abThe maneuver of the workshop for the writing of the anthology had to begin immediately, drastically, after years of hesitation before the project of what must have been Antolog\u00eda de Laye,<\/em> a direct codification of the Barcelona group\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cover and contents of the last issue of the magazine Laye<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When the anthology Veinte a\u00f1os de poes\u00eda espa\u00f1ola<\/em> eventually appeared in 1960, <\/em>the journal \u00cdnsula <\/em>(no. 166, September 1960), and Destino<\/a> <\/em>(no. 1212, 29\/10\/1960) both mentioned it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00cdnsula<\/em>, no. 156 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The initial dedication \u201cTo the memory\nof Antonio Machado, on the twentieth anniversary of his death\u201d reveals Josep\nMaria Castellet\u2019s interest in associating the anthology with the figure of\nMachado and with the commemorative events that were held in Cotlliure in 1959. In\nthe critic\u2019s opinion: \u201cnew poets are emerging, separately, who, in just a few\nshort years, evolving in many cases in parallel fashion, acquire a certain\ncommon poetic conscience, which is expressed openly in public, because of the\ncommemoration of the 20th<\/sup> anniversary of the death of Antonio\nMachado.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veinte\na\u00f1os de poes\u00eda espa\u00f1ola<\/em>\nwas not well received in some quarters, but it fulfilled its objective: to make\nquite a big splash. Jaime Gil de Biedma says this in a letter to Caballero\nBonald (15\/11\/1960): \u201cIf you remain in contact at all continuously with Spain,\nespecially through literary journals, you will have already seen that there has\nbeen quite a commotion about Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Castellet\u2019s anthology. I think it\u2019s the\nbest thing that could have happened to us.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. The creation of the Colliure<\/a><\/em> collection<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The collection was created in 1960, although the first books were not published until 1961, and it ended in 1966. The initial plan was to publish 12 books, by young authors mostly, along with some established poets, but in the end only eleven titles were published, including A\u00f1os decisivos<\/a><\/em> (1961) by Jos\u00e9 Agust\u00edn Goytisolo; Diecinueve figuras de mi historia civil<\/a><\/em> (1961) by Carlos Barral, and En favor de Venus<\/a><\/em> (1965) by Jaime Gil de Biedma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n