UTW 78

Memorial to photojournalist - war photographer Gerda Taro, Spanish poet Miguel Hernandez, and three Spanish child victims of the Nazi Third Reich's Luftwaffe air force bombing of a town in Spain, 1937

Media: Pencil, ink, gouache, colored pencil, crayon
Framed: Framed, 41 in. H x 17 W [101.14 cm. H x 43.18 W] 
art: 2023

At the request of the Fascist dictator of Spain, Generalisimo Francisco Franco (1892-1975) and his military, the German Nazi Third Reich sent Luftwaffe pilots in their planes to Spain. The pilots were from the Condor Legion.  

They bombed a school in the town of Llieda, November 2, 1937. The school was called Liceu Escolar. Several hundred people died in the town from the bombings. I don't know the names of the children or the teachers who were murdered by the Nazi Luftwaffe air force personnel.   

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The bombing of the town of Guernica was prior, on April 6, 1937. That bombing inspired one of Pablo Picasso's most famous paintings, titled Guernica. It was on exhibit for many years in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, where I saw it a number of times. It was moved back to Spain in 1981; it's now at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.  

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In my drawing, one sea monster was inspired by a color photo in a 1963-1964 Life Nature Library book. Previously, for eclectic inspiration, I viewed 2 color photos I like, published in a  1063-64 published LIFE Nature Library book, The Fishes. Edited by F.D. Ommanney and the Editors of Life. Published by Time Inc., New York, N.Y. The 2 fishes which inspired my interpretative drawing shapes and coloration are on p. 26: A dragon moray eel; a tile fish.
 
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The wings drawn on the portraits of the 3 school kids were inspired by photos of wings in the hardcopy calendar, Splendid Wings 2002. Published by the American Ornithology Union, with credits to the University of Washington Burke Museum, Seattle and the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences. I will add more attribution as is printed in the catalog in my website's Under the Wings sources text page after my drawing is completed and posted in the website. The wing I drew on the portrait of the boy is a Yellow-bibbed Lory; the following words look to be Latin: Lorius chlorocerus.
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I began the drawing May 18, 2023, inspired by a photo of Gerda Taro. She was born August 1, 1910, Stuggart, Germany, of Jewish parentage. Considered the first woman war photojournalist and photographer, she was the partner and girlfriend of Robert Capa, the great photojournalist and co-founder of Magnum Photography. Capa, also Jewish, was born in Budapest, 1913; died 1954, French Indochina.
Taro died in Spain, age 26, on July 26, 1937, when she was hit by a tank. Her death reportedly left Capa bereft.  They were living together in Paris before they went to Spain to cover the civil war there.  

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The other portrait of an adult is of the Spanish poet Miguel Hernandez. He was born in Orihuela, Spain, October 30, 1910. While imprisoned in Alicanta jail, Spain, in 1942, he left passed on March 28, from typhus and tuberculosis. He was previously convicted and sentenced to death in 1939 for anti-Fascist activities. He was incarcerated in inhumane conditions in several prisons. 

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I first learned of the poetry of Hernandez from a record album, titled Miguel Hernandez, which I bought in 1973 in a record store in Rio Piedras, near the University of Puerto RIco campus, near San Juan. The album is sung by the Spanish troubadour-singer and composer Joan Manuel Serrat, born 1943. The 'Miguel Hernandez ' album was released in 1972.
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Art, video © A.K. Segan

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