Josep Bartolí i Guiu
(1910–1995)
Josep Bartolí i Guiu (1910–1995) is one of the most prolific cartoonists of the Spanish Civil War exile. In Spain, he was raised among anarchists and later affiliated with the anarchist group Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI). Before the Spanish Civil War, he was one of the founders of the Socialist Cartoonist Union (UGT) and illustrated articles against Nazism in Última Hora (Barcelona). During the war, Bartolí drew war posters and defended Zaragoza on the frontline with Caridad Mercader, the Cuban communist.2 After the war, Bartolí escaped French concentration camps and the Gestapo and arrived in México. Once in Mexico, Bartolí wrote to the exiled Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia requesting to leave the party because he had been accused of belonging to the POUM (Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification). This was probably because Narcís Molins i Fàbrega, one of the POUM’s leaders, was his best friend. With him, Bartolí published his drawings about the French concentration camps, Campos de concentración, 1939–194? (1944). Bartolí also published illustrations about the war in the socialist exile periodical Mundo. Socialismo y Libertad in MexicoIn the 1950s and 1960s, Bartolí published hundreds of black and white editorial cartoons in the New York antifascist periodicals Ibérica and España Libre. Compared to his previous drawings of concentration camps with many dark strokes, exile caricatures are minimalist and straightforward, with elegant forms and simple continuous lines. They are conceptual drawings that clearly expressed his authority as an editorial cartoonist, proven by the fact that his art was prominently displayed in these periodicals.I thank Bernice Bromberg, Josep Bartolí’s widow, for her authorization to preserve and publish Bartolí’s work.
Bartolí on Fascist Spain
Josep Bartolí i Guiu’s graphic art covered news of Fascist Spain with the information provided by underground and global networks of dissidence. Bartolí’s satirical commentary contested the US Cold War narrative about Francisco Franco’s Spain as an ally of world peace and Christianity. His artistic production displayed a proletarian sensibility that mocked the many facets of Fascist Spain: the imperial rhetoric, the military life, the Spanish fascist party Falange, the cult of the unique leader, National Catholicism, censorship, and the socialization of youth. Furthermore, Bartolí’s visual language exposed Francisco Franco’s anti-intellectualism, elitism, corruption, and demagogic propaganda, thus, breaking down mainstream notions of Spain for American readers. At the same time, he documented the US freedom fighters’ “good fight” for posterity.
Bartolí on Antifascist Resistance
Bartolí documented the antifascist activism and solidarity abroad and in Spain, celebrated freedom fighters and student demonstrations, depicted ways to kill Franco, issued calls for action, and asked for unity of action. For instance, the artist illustrated essays on George Orwell (July 1956), Pío Baroja (July 1960), Manuel Azaña (March 1961), el Quijote and Sancho Panza (March 1961).
Bartolí on International and Monarchic Relations
Bartolí exposed global powers negociations with Franco. France had been a republican model for the Spanish republic, the Oct. 1958 issue after the elections of the Firth French Republic celebrates it. However, one cartoon published a year later shows the disillusion with France trade agreement with Spain and the banning of the Spanish Communist party in the country. Spanish exiles were terribly dismayed by Dwight Eisenhower visit to Spain in December 1959. To further undermine Spain’s relations with the United States, Bartolí also illustrated Ibérica’s reports about the corruption of the regime. Several articles in Ibérica covered the growing anti-Americanism sentiment among Spaniards inside Spain and abroad.