Chronology of Quintanilla's
Life and Work
*
A Very Brief Aesthetic Survey of Quintanilla's Development
__________________________
| June 12, 1893 | Leon
Gerardo Luis Quintanilla Isasi Cagigal Zerrageria is born to a conservative
family, with aristocratic ties, in Santander, Spain. His friends, throughout
his life, either called him Luis or Quinta. And he signed his name Luis
Quintanilla. |
| Photographs of Quintanilla's Family |
The
Spring of |
At
the age of eighteen Quintanilla runs off to Paris to become an artist.
Through a prostitute who lived in his Montmartre hotel, Toto la Blonde,
the "protectoress of young artists and prostitutes," he meets
Juan Gris, and under his fellow countryman's influence becomes a Cubist. |
| Cubism |
1913
August 1915 |
First one man show in Paris, at the Galerie Marcel Panadil.
At the age of 22 Quintanilla leaves a wartime Paris and returns to his home in Santander. Spain remains neutral through World War I. |
| Fall of 1916 | Quintanilla
moves into a studio in Madrid. He meets Juan Negrin, Julio Alvarez del
Vayo, Luis Araquistain, Pepe el Gordo, and other writers, intellectuals,
artists, and future leaders of the Spanish Republic. At this time only
Araquistain is actively engaged among this group in politics.
|
| 1920 | When
the war
comes to an end Quintanilla returns to Paris, renting a studio on the
Rue Chaplain, close to the Carrefoure Vavin in Montparnasse. |
| 1922 | In
the spring of 1922 Quintanilla meets Ernest Hemingway in a Montparnasse
bar, where they "catch la gran borachera." Hemingway plies
Quintanilla with countless questions about Spain and the artist tells
him about the San Fermins in Pamplona. |
| Modernism |
| 1923 | Quintanilla
becomes disgusted with the evolving art scene in Paris and returns to
Madrid. The Duke of Alba becomes his patron. |
| 1924 - 1926 |
He
receives a grant to study the techniques of fresco painting in Florence,
Italy. In Florence he abandons Cubism and begins to develop a more personal
artistic style. |
| 1926 - 1928 | He
settles in Hendaye, France, on the Spanish border, in order to paint
his first major ensemble of frescoes in the Spanish consulate. His neighbor
in the Hotel Imatz is none other than Don Miguel de Unamuno, who's in
exile during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. |
| 1928 | He
moves into an 11th story studio on the Calle Fernando el Catolico in
Madrid. From this studio, near the Parque del Oeste, it is possible
to see much of Madrid. |
| June 1929 | He finishes the frescoes in the Spanish consulate in Hendaye. These frescoes were destroyed by the Franco government after the Spanish Civil War. |
| September
1, 1930 |
With Luis Araquistain acting as his sponsor, he joins El Partido Socialista Obrero de Espana. (The Spanish Socialist Workers Party.) |
| April 12, 1931 | National
elections are held which become a plebiscite on whether to have a Republic
or not. Quintanilla votes for the first time and spends the day with
Francisco Largo Caballero as the election results arrive. |
| April 13, 1931 | Quintanilla
spends most of the day with Juan Negrin and Luis Araquistain. That evening,
accompanied by Negrin, he goes to the Royal Palace and raises the Republic's
flag on the palace ensuring that the ouster of the monarchy remains
bloodless. |
| April 14, 1931 | The
Republic is proclaimed throughout the whole of Spain, ending the longest
remaining monarchy in Europe. Alfonso XIII goes into exile in France. |
| 1931 - 1936 | Quintanilla
paints the frescoes for the Casa del Pueblo, University City, the entry
hall for Madrid's Museum of Modern Art, and the Memorial for Pablo Iglesias.
Most of these works are destroyed during the civil war or by the Fascists
after the war merely because he had painted them. |
| Spring of 1934 | He
shows his engravings of Madrid street scenes and life in Madrid's Museum
of Modern Art. The show attracts a great deal of attention and he's
hailed as a major artist. |
| Madrid Life and Street Scenes |
| October 5, 1934 | Quintanilla
is arrested in his studio for being a member of the Revolutionary Committee
which intended to oust the government. He is sent to Madrid's Carcel
Modelo to await trial. |
| Fall
and Winter of 1934 |
The
world's intellectual community immediately rallies to his aid. Andre
Malraux circulates the petitions in France, Lady Margo Asquith, the
wife of the former Prime Minister, does the same in England. And in
the United States Hemingway and John Dos Passos circulate the petitions
and arrange for a show of his work. The petitions and protests don't
get Quintanilla out of jail but he's allowed, instead, to draw his fellow
prisoners. |
| Drawings of Jail |
| November 1934 | His
Madrid etchings are shown at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York.
Hemingway and Dos Passos write the catalog. |
The Show at the Pierre Matisse Gallery: |
| June 10, 1935 | After
serving eight months, four days, and three hours in prison Quintanilla
is released. That fall his jail drawings are shown and La
Carcel por Dentro, a book which was made entirely in jail,
is published. |
| July 1936 | The
military rises up against the Republic and the civil war begins. On
the 19th Quintanilla helps leads the attack on the Montana Barracks,
Madrid's most important military base. After the rebels are suppressed
Quintanilla is put in charge of the Barracks. |
| July through September 1936 | Quintanilla
leads troops in combat on the front lines and participates in the assault
on the Alcazar of Toledo. For his involvement in the assault he is put
on General Franco's first black list, the first twelve names of those
to be executed in the bullring in Burgos. |
|
September
4, |
Francisco Largo Caballero becomes Premier. |
| November 1936 | Because
the Republic has "many good generals but only one great artist,"
Juan Negrin orders Quintanilla out of the army. Until May he serves
as director of the Republic's intelligence services on the French side
of the Basquelands |
| May 1937 | Largo
Caballero resigns as Premier, Araquistain quits his post as Ambassador
to France, and Juan Negrin becomes the last Premier of the Spanish Republic.
Quintanilla proposes to do drawings of the war. |
| Spring,
summer, and fall of 1937 |
With
a driver who had been wounded on the front Quintanilla traverses the
fronts of the war in a car which has to be changed several times. In
the fall Quintanilla puts 140 drawings into their final form in Sitges
on the Mediterranean coast. |
| December 1937 | All 140 drawings are shown at the Hotel Ritz in Barcelona. They are presented against a stark red background. |
| January 12, 1938 | Encouraged by Hemingway, Jay Allen, Herbert Matthews and other American friends Quintanilla comes to New York to show his drawings. |
April 1938 |
The
drawings are shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Hemingway
wrote the catalog. The Fascists dip their battle flags into the Mediterranean,
cutting the Republic in half. |
The Show at the Museum of Modern Art |
| July 30 1938 | Quintanilla leaves New York and returns to Barcelona. |
| Fall of 1938 | In Barcelona Quintanilla draws a series of fiercely satirical drawings of the fascists as the Republic crumbles. They are later published in New York as Franco's Black Spain. |
| Franco's Black Spain |
| September
29, 1938 |
Munich |
| January 1939 | On
the 4th he boards the French Line's S. S. Paris bound for New York.
On January 11 he arrives, beginning a 37 year exile. |
| February
21, 1939 |
He marries my mother, Jan Speirs, in a simple ceremony in Greenwich, Connecticut. |
| New York Photographs |
| April 1, 1939 | The Second Spanish Republic dies. General Francisco Franco is now the absolute dictator of Spain. |
| November 1939 | He
has a show at the Associated American Artists Gallery in New York. The
murals he painted for the Spanish Pavilion of the 1939 World's Fair
are shown. They were not hung at the fair for obvious reasons. He writes
an open letter in the catalog to Ernest Hemingway in which he sets forth
his artistic philosophy. |
|
- |
| January 2, 1940 | An only child, I am born. My father now has a family to support. |
| May
- August 1940 |
He
accompanies eight prominent American artists to Hollywood to paint the
portraits of the cast in John Ford's The Long Voyage Home. |
| Hollywood |
| September
1940 - June 1941 |
He
teaches the techniques of fresco painting at the University of Kansas
City in Kansas City, Missouri. In a hall of the Language Arts Building
he paints his final large ensemble of murals, depicting Don Quixote
in the modern world. |
|
- - |
| September 1941 | The collaboration with Elliot Paul on making a Spanish rice, Intoxication Made Easy, is published. This is his first humor book. |
| Intoxication Made Easy |
| 1942 | His spoof with Elliot Paul on Hollywood mores, With a Hays Nonny Nonny, is published. |
| With a Hays Nonny Nonny |
| October 1943 | The Quintanilla family moves into 26 W. 8th Street, in New York's Greenwich Village. In his studio in New York he begins to develop his American style, painting numerous portraits, New England landscapes, still lifes, water colors, etc. |
|
New York - 1940's |
| 1943 | Elliot
Paul sits for his portrait as a Picador, the first author to sit for
the series of portraits of "Writers as how they see themselves." |
| May 1944 | The "Totalitarian Europe" water colors and drawings are shown at the Knoedler Galleries in New York. |
| "Totalitarian Europe" Water Colors |
| May 7, 1945 | Nazi Germany unconditionally surrenders. |
| 1946 | Franco's Black Spain, the collection of satirical drawings he did in Barcelona toward the end of the war, is published with an introduction by Richard Watts, Jr. |
| 1947 | The illustrated, unabridged Gulliver's Travels is published. |
| The Illustrated Gulliver's Travels |
| May 1947 | The portrait of Richard Wright as a jigsaw puzzle. |
| Richard Wright |
| Late
40's |
An illustrated Poe is considered. But the project doesn't materialize. |
| 1950's | In his studio in New York Quintanilla further develops his aesthetic by painting portraits, landscapes, still lifes, etc. |
1950's |
| 1950 | Samuel Putnam's translation of Cervantes' Three Exemplary Novels, with illustrations by Quintanilla, is published. |
| The Illustrated Three Exemplary Novels |
| August 1956 | He begins his collaboration with Joseph Mitchell and provides illustrations for The New Yorker's "Profiles." |
| New Yorker Profiles |
| January 1957 | He has his first one man show since 1944 at the Galerie Marcel C. Coard on the Avenue Matignon in Paris. Nothing is sold. |
| March 1957 | He flies to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to paint the portrait of Pablo Casals. |
|
- |
| April 1958 | He has his first American show since 1944 at Wildenstein's in New York. No paintings are sold. |
| October 18, 1958 | In
order to make his name known once again he moves to Paris, and finds
a studio at 61 Franklin D. Roosevelt Avenue, just a block from the Champs
Elysee. |
| Photographs of Quintanilla in Paris |
| April 1959 | Through Pablo Casals' intervention he has a show in the lobby of the Salle Gaveau in Paris. |
| 1960 | Illustrations for The Gothic Devil, which wasn't published. |
| 1967 | Los
Rehenes del Alcazar de Toledo is published. This is his account
of the actual events which took place during the Republican siege of
the Alcazar at the start of the war. |
| The late 1960's | Though he still has a strong desire to paint, he begins to lose his energy and lags in output. |
| Old Age |
| November
20, 1975 |
Francisco Franco dies. |
| November
4, 1976 |
Felipe Gonzalez, the head of Spain's Socialist Party, assures him democracy has returned to Spain. And on the 4th he returns to Madrid. |
| October 16, 1978 | He quietly dies in bed in his home at 29 Quintana. |
*
A Very Brief Aesthetic Survey of Quintanilla's Development
Start Here -
His style always adapted to his theme. Though
he made the drawings of jail soon after the Madrid street scenes
note how different they are. And how they capture an entirely different spirit and mood.
And once again his style adapted to his theme.
Further examples of how his approach and style adapted can be
seen in all his other drawings and illustrations. On the Main Menu there are many links.
6 - Love Peace Hate War and Don Quixote Murals
7 - These links (New York and Paris) will take you to the Main Menu.
Most of my reproductions are of work from the forties and fifties, what is
in my own collection. He may have reached his prime in Paris
during the sixties. Unfortunately, I have very few reproductions of
his work from that time. Nor do I know where most of it is today.
"The transcendence of a genuine artist can be understood by any person who merely looks at the extraordinary results of converting a wall, a tablet, a canvas, or a flat board into something with lines and colors which the whole of humanity can admire and look at over many centuries, art being the one eternal value which helps us endure the stormy upheavals of history." Luis Quintanilla Translated from Pasatiempo: la vida de un pintor
In a century which greatly prized individuality, even eccentricity, for its own sake, Quintanilla paid a very high price for going his own artistic way. He was modern without truly becoming a Modernist, and he never signed that most modern of artistic credos which declared aesthetics null and void. As he tells us in an open letter he wrote to Ernest Hemingway for his 1939 Associated American Artists' Gallery show, "I believe only in good painting. Abstract or concrete, with ismo or without ismo, come from where it might and go where it will.” This letter could well serve as his own artistic credo and an introduction to his work.
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