TRIBUTE TO HERNANDO VIÑES. GENERATION OF ’27

RUNNER-UP PRIZE, ALMUZARA PAINTING AWARD 2023

Inmaculada López Hernández 

(@ilh.art)

The pictorial research is based on a photograph taken on May 13, 1936, at the Hostería Cervantes in Madrid, thanks to the initiative of Pepín Bello, writer and intellectual, at the tribute to the painter Hernando Viñés. Not everyone attended. Those present shared concerns about the complicated political situation at the time. Two months later, the Spanish Civil War began, bringing an end to their projects and, for some, their lives. It marked the end of the Generation of ’27.

I have had the pleasure of researching each person in the photograph, studying countless old black-and-white photographs. This led me to seek out the opinions and memories of those who knew them and, in doing so, to discover wonderful details, such as the beautiful color of Miguel Hernández’s eyes. I have traveled through the lives of this multitude of figures and, for several months, had the good fortune to enjoy their art. When portraying a poet, I would often play their verses on podcasts: great poems by García Lorca, Rafael Alberti, and Pablo Neruda. This brought them to life, accompanying me through the creative process, as if they were waiting to be painted and even suggesting, through their work, how they should be portrayed. This happened with Guillermo de Torre, after I discovered the Ultraist manifesto and read his aesthetic principles, and while painting Acario Cotapos as I listened to his musical compositions. Discovering the work of sculptors and painters such as Honorio Condoy, Alberto Sánchez, and José Caballero gave me guidance for humbly portraying them.

I researched their lives, but I did not want to portray them in that frozen moment in time. I sought to paint the mark they have left on us, showing it in their faces, just as life leaves its mark on each of our own faces. I also incorporated a metaphysical perspective, in which the adjective “temporal” does not refer to physical time, seeking in each of them the being as a principle distinct from identity.

Figures depicted in the painting, from left to right and top to bottom:

First row: Eduardo Ugarte (writer, set designer, screenwriter, and film director); Adolfo Salazar (musicologist, critic, historian, journalist, and composer); Alfonso Buñuel (architect); Juan Vicéns (librarian); Acario Cotapos (composer); Miguel Hernández (poet and playwright); Neruda (poet and critic); Maryca (bank employee and Pablo Neruda’s wife).

Second row: José Caballero (painter); Eva Tay (dance poetry); García Lorca (poet, playwright, and prose writer); Luis Buñuel (writer, screenwriter, and film director); Lupe Condoy (wife and model of Honorio Condoy); Rafael Alberti (poet and playwright); Guillermo de Torre (essayist, poet, and literary and art critic); Rafael Sánchez Ventura (philosopher, museographer, and diplomat); Honorio Condoy (sculptor and painter).

Third row: Alberto Sánchez (sculptor and painter); Delia del Carril, “La Hormiguita” (printmaker, painter, and draftsman); Pilar Bayona (pianist); Hernando Viñes (painter); Lulú Jourdan (Hernando Viñés’s wife); María Teresa León (writer, novelist, essayist, and screenwriter); Gustavo Durán (composer, military officer, spy, and writer); Mrs. Dorronsoro (political activist).

Portrayed: José Caballero, Eduardo Ugarte, Eva Thais, Adolfo Salazar, Alfonso Buñuel, García Lorca, Juan Vicéns, Luis Buñuel, Lupe Condoy, Acacio Cotapos, Alberti, Guillermo de Torre, Miguel Hernández, Neruda, Rafael Sánchez Ventura, Maria A. Agenaar Volgelzanz, Honorio Condoy, Alberto Sánchez, Delia del Carril, Pilar Bayona, Hernando Viñes, Lulú Jourdan, María Teresa León, Gustavo Durán, Mrs. Dorronsoro, Domingo Pruna, Hortelano, Pepín Bello, and Santiago Ontañón 

Inmaculada López Hernández

(@ilh.art)