Poetry, film, humor

The years around World War, which was undoubtedly the most difficult phase of Franco's dictatorship, also served as the back-drop for the development of a new avant-garde culture in Spain. Its birth is traditionally cited by art historians as taking place between 1947 and 1948, when groups such as Dau al Set in Barcelona and Pórtico in Zaragoza appeared or resumed their activities. The persistence, even today, of certain attitudes and poetics characteristic of that generation of artists as well as their extensive representation in the collection of the Museo Reina Sofía has made this period into one of the museum's principal areas of research. As a result, it is essential for the museum to dig deeper in its analysis and critical (re)interpretation of this time.

With the restructuring and enlargement of the rooms devoted to this period, along with the present publication, the Museo Reina Sofía's Collections Deaprtment seeks to significantly broaden the investigative scope traditionally applied to the visual culture of this period in Spain's recent history.