SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, SPAIN.- The Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, (Galician Centre for Contemporary Art)´presents A Galicia moderna (Modern Galicia), through March 20, 2005. A Galicia moderna (Modern Galicia) covers a twenty-year period, from the creation in Corunna in 1916 of the first Irmandade de Amigos da Fala – an association of Galician studies that paved the way for the foundation of the nationalist party Partido Galeguista – to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

The exhibition starts with a room devoted to Castelao, a prolific and unique personality who played an important rôle in the generation and dissemination of Galician culture. It then moves on to focus on the literary oeuvre of the group of intellectuals known as Xeración Nós that included Vicente Risco and Otero Pedrayo, the works by the following generation of innovative artists, led by Manuel Antonio, and select issues of magazines such as Ronsel and Cristal, illustrated by major painters and designers including Huici, Manuel Méndez and Francisco Miguel.

The paintings by the members of Os Novos – Maruja Mallo, Maside, Souto, Colmeiro, Fernández Mazas, Torres and the youngest of all, Laxeiro – made a definite break with the provincial picturesqueness of their Galician predecessors, while the three-dimensional designs by sculptors Eiroa, Bonome, Cristino Mallo and Ferrant followed the same aesthetic guidelines. A similar spirit of renovation spread through the fields of photography, film, drama and music in Galicia. The connections between the avant-garde and the investigations of photographers José Suárez and José María Massó and film-maker Carlos Velo, to name but three visual artists, are patently clear.

Finally, in the sphere of architecture and town planning, the early twentieth century witnessed a considerable expansion of cities such as Vigo and Corunna, accompanied by similar development in Ourense and even Lugo, entailing significant changes in the physiognomy of Galicia’s urban landscape.

The historical events of the following decade brought all such transformations to an abrupt end, and the Spanish Civil War initiated an age of despondence that extended well into the postwar period. For the next forty years, the spirit of creativity and experimentation characterising the first two decades of the century would only survive in the works of a few Galician artists.