Spanish art - 20th Century

The art associated with Spain, which has flourished in the Peninsula since prehistoric times. The Roman occupation (218 BC–AD 414) saw extensive building, but most of this has perished. After the Muslim invasion of 711, Córdoba became the centre of an artistically splendid culture which exerted a deep influence on later Christian art. A recognizable national tradition began in the 9th-c with the Mozarabic style (ie the art of Spanish Christians under Muslim rule). From the 11th-c, richly decorated Romanesque cathedrals were built, such as at Santiago de Compostela. The great period in painting and sculpture began in the late 16th-c, when a powerfully emotional realism emerged in response to Counter-Reformation ideals. Major painters included El Greco, Velázquez, and Zurbarán; sculptors included Juan Martínez Montañés (1568–1649) and Alonso Cano (1601–67). The most important later masters were Goya and Picasso.

Spanish art is an important and influential type of art in Europe.

Pre-Romanesque art refers to the art of Spain after the Classical Age and before Romanesque art and architecture. Asturian art Visigothic art After the Moorish invasion of Hispania in the 8th century, eastern and Arabic art influenced Spanish art and architecture, such as at the Alcázar of Seville and the Alhambra

Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary baroque period, important as a portrait artist.

Francisco Goya was a portraitist and court painter to the Spanish Crown, a chronicler of history, and, in his unofficial work, a revolutionary and a visionary.

20th Century

Picasso's Blue Period (1901–1904), which consisted of somber, blue-tinted paintings was influenced by a trip through Spain. The Museu Picasso in Barcelona features many of Picasso's early works, created while he was living in Spain, as well as the extensive collection of Jaime Sabartés, Picasso's close friend from his Barcelona days who, for many years, was Picasso's personal secretary. While Picasso was worried that if he copied Velázquez's painting, it would be seen only as a copy and not as any sort of unique representation, he proceeded to do so, and the enormous work—the largest he had produced since Guernica in 1937—earned a position of relevance in the Spanish canon of art.

Salvador Dalí was one of the most important painters of the 20th century. Upon Francisco Franco's coming to power in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, Dalí came into conflict with his fellow Surrealists over political beliefs. Andre Breton coined the anagram "Avida Dollars", by which he referred to Dalí after the period of his expulsion; The surrealist movement and various members thereof (such as Ted Joans) would continue to issue extremely harsh polemics against Dalí until the time of his death and beyond. In 1959, Andre Breton asked Dalí to represent Spain in the Homage to Surrealism Exhibition, celebrating the Fortieth Anniversary of Surrealism, among the works of Joan Miró, Enrique Tábara, and Eugenio Granell. In 1960 Dalí began work on the Teatre-Museu Gala Salvador Dalí in his home town of Figueres. In 1982 King Juan Carlos of Spain bestowed on Dalí the title Marquis of Púbol.