From November 13th to 17th, 2017, the 50th Congress of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) will take place in Paris.
See the full program of the congress.
On Tuesday 14th morning, Paula Barreiro López will participate in the session “Paradigmatic shifts in the AICA’s history” at the National Institute of Art History (INHA) with the lecture “L’internationalisation de la critique d’art militant espagnole des années soixante : un lecture à travers des réseaux de l’AICA“(The internationalization of engaged Spanish art criticism in the 1960s: a reading through the AICA’s networks).
Abstract of the presentation
Since 1957, with the end of autarchy and the acceptance of Spain on the western side of the Cold War, exchanges and collaborations between Spanish art critics and their foreign colleagues and institutions increased. Committed Spanish art critics joined the international community of art critics, establishing fertile relationships. In this process, networks and professional associations such as the AICA became very important. This platform gave Spaniards the opportunity to interact with their European and American colleagues and acquire knowledge and new intellectual tools to develop their perspective on modern art in the sixties. These relations were vital for the renewal of their theoretical tools and their conception of critical activity as a militant activity.
Spanish critics considered criticism as a creative activity in itself, particularly involved in the sociopolitical field. By supporting artistic trends, theorizing, uniting and even sometimes piloting them , they were able to participate in the creation and development of artistic avant-garde movements, which allowed them to strengthen their ideological position. Finally, they became openly anti-Francoist and began to spread this ideology beyond the borders of the country.
Thanks to their contacts abroad (developed mainly through the AICA’s networks), they were able to gain a privileged position that allowed them to do more than simply joining new aesthetic discourses and avant-garde movements. They transformed their participation abroad into a platform to denounce the repressive nature of dictatorship to the international community. Therefore, for these intellectuals engaged against the dictatorship, the support to the vanguard went hand in hand with cultural and sociopolitical activism.
