''The Dream and Lie of Franco'' is a series of two sheets of prints, comprising 18 individual images, and an accompanying

prose poem Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects. Characteristics Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associ ...

, by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

produced in 1937. The sheets each contain nine images arranged in a 3x3 grid. The first 14, in

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

and

aquatint Aquatint is an intaglio (printmaking), intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. ...

, are dated 8 January 1937. The remaining four images were added to the second

printing plate Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...

later, without use of aquatint, and dated June 7, 1937.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

Dream and Lie of Franco, 1937
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National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

An Introduction to Guernica
/ref>

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

Picasso's commitment to the cause
/ref> ''The Dream and Lie of Franco'' is significant as Picasso's first overtly political work and prefigures his iconic political painting '' Guernica''. The etchings satirise Spanish Generalísimo Francisco Franco's claim to represent and defend conservative Spanish culture and values by showing him in various ridiculous guises destroying Spain and its culture while the poem denounces "evil-omened polyps". Three of the four images added in June 1937 are directly related to studies for ''Guernica''. The individual images were originally intended to be published as

postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...

s to raise funds for the Spanish Republican government, and sold at the Spanish Pavilion of the 1937 World's Fair, although it is unclear whether any prints were made or sold in postcard format. In his review of the etchings for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'' in October 1937, art historian (and member of the

Cambridge Five The Cambridge Spy Ring was a ring of spies in the United Kingdom that passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and was active from the 1930s until at least into the early 1950s. None of the known members were ever prosecuted ...

spy-ring) Anthony Blunt complained that the work could not "reach more than the limited coterie of

aesthetes Aestheticism (also the Aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century which privileged the aesthetic value of literature, music and the arts over their socio-political functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be pr ...

". Critic and author John Golding on the other hand, claimed that "more than any other work by Picasso ''Dream and Lie of Franco'' breaks down, as the Surrealists so passionately longed to, distinctions between thought, writing and visual imagery."

Images

The images form a sequence like those in a

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

(in particular, the Spanish auca) and have a loose narrative: Franco's form changes from panel to panel. The Spanish dictator's appearance has been likened by various writers to a "

jackboot A jackboot is a military boot such as the cavalry jackboot or the hobnailed jackboot. The hobnailed jackboot has a different design and function from the first type. It is a combat boot that is designed for marching. It rises to mid-calf or high ...

ed phallus", "an evil-omened polyp" and "a grotesque

homunculus A homunculus ( , , ; "little person") is a representation of a small human being, originally depicted as small statues made out of clay. Popularized in sixteenth-century alchemy and nineteenth-century fiction, it has historically referred to the ...

with a head like a gesticulating and tuberous sweet potato". Quote by Joaquín de la Puente # Franco riding a horse waving a sword and a flag # Franco, with a ridiculously large penis, waving a sword and a flag # Franco attacking a classical sculpture with a pick # Franco dressed as a

courtesan Courtesan, in modern usage, is a euphemism for a "kept" mistress or prostitute, particularly one with wealthy, powerful, or influential clients. The term historically referred to a courtier, a person who attended the court of a monarch or other ...

with a flower and a fan # Franco being gored by a bull # Franco at prayer surrounded by barbed wire # Franco on top of a dead creature # Franco chasing a winged horse # Franco riding on a pig carrying a spear # Franco eating a dead horse # The aftermath of a battle with a corpse # The aftermath of a battle with a dead horse # Franco and a bull # Franco and the bull fighting Additions to the second plate (including studies for ''Guernica''): # A woman crying and reaching up # A woman fleeing a burning house carrying a child # A woman cradling a child # A woman shot with an arrow and reaching up amid devastation

Prose

References

Selected bibliography

External links

Lambiek Comiclopedia article about Pablo Picasso, which also discusses ''The Dream and Lie of Franco''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dream and Lie of Franco Pablo Picasso etchings Basque history Spanish Civil War in popular culture War art 1937 works 20th-century etchings Political art Horses in art Cattle in art Bullfighting in art Anti-Francoism Anti-fascist works Anti-war works Anti-war comics 1937 in comics Comics set in Spain Comics set in the 1930s Satirical comics Cultural depictions of Francisco Franco Works about Falangism Poetry by Pablo Picasso Spanish political satire