“When you enter, it is they who are looking at you,” says Alberto Martín, commissioner of the exhibition Long live the bohemia! Low funds of literary lifeat the beginning of this tour in the Museum of History of Madrid. It refers to the images filmed by Alice Guy in 1905, where mostly men in a suit are crowded at the Puerta del Sol, looking at her, the camera. Making reference to an appointment by Ricardo Baroja, which is engraved on the wall, Martín points out that among all those people there could be “some bohemians”, people who “wrote in newspapers that did not pay (or paid little); they painted pictures that did not sell; they published verses that nobody read; they drew cartoons that nobody wanted”. About them treats this sample that can be visited until June 1.
But before deepening in Madrid’s bohemia, the sample dives in the context. The first room of the exhibition is dedicated to the fascination that the city of Paris exerted on Spanish writers and artists of the 19th century. “Many’s dream was to breathe the air of Victor Hugo, to be part of that Paris, of the Latin Quarter,” explains the commissioner. And that dream was reflected in texts and paintings such as those of Ramón Casas, Anglada Camarasa, Raimundo de Madrazo … for Martín, “everyone portrayed that frivolous and nocturnal Paris that attracted and devoured the bohemians.” He also points out a painting by Enrique Ochoa, who illustrated covers for bohemian writers such as Rubén Darío, Antonio de Hoyos and Eliodoro Puche. “Ochoa left scenes of artistic misery in Paris: painters in their attic, artists going hungry. Because not all who arrived in Paris triumphed, many returned empty -handed.”
From Paris, the exhibition goes to Madrid, the Neuralgic Center of the Spanish Bohemia. “If Paris was the dream, Madrid was reality,” Martín points out. The city received young people with literary aspirations who soon discovered precariousness. “In fact there is a very characteristic phrase that is ‘writing in Madrid is crying’, which Larra said it,” adds the commissioner. “In Spain, as we are like that, when the opera arrived The bohemian, From Puccini, we made a parody and called it The golfer. Instead of Paris, it takes place in Madrid, and instead of Rodolfo, the protagonist is called Sogolfo. It is a mockery, but also a way to appropriate myth, ”says the commissioner with a smile.
The exhibition shows how Madrid coffees became writers’ shelters. Swiss coffee, prince and coffee Levante coffee, among others, were erected as meeting points where artistic creation and precariousness lived daily. “The coffees are fundamental in Madrid’s life,” says Martín, while showing a painting by Ricardo Balaca from the Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao, which portrays one of these spaces.
The report published by the magazine New World In 1894 he documes one of the most raw realities: bedroom cafetines. “Thus some writers slept at night,” explains Martín, underlining the harsh living conditions of those artists who, despite the difficulties, found in these spaces a collective support and creation network. That brotherhood is reflected in the exposed pieces, such as the busts of Julio Antonio. “This sculptor shared a attic with the poet Rafael Lasso de la Vega and the painter Miguel Viladrich,” says Martín, highlighting how coexistence and exchange between disciplines defined the spirit of the Madrid bohemian.
Bohemia as a social denunciation
With the arrival of modernism, bohemia acquires a more combative tone. “Bohemia is not simply going with a hat and a pipe, it is a form of protest,” explains Martín. In the exhibition, the figure of Joaquín Dicenta and his theater work stands out Juan José (1895), where “for the first time the working class was represented with fidelity in the tables.” That is why it became a tradition to represent it on May 1. Alejandro Sawa is another key figure of this generation. “Sawa is the great Spanish bohemian,” says the commissioner with emphasis. “He died very poor, in a situation of precariousness, blind.” And yet, he explains, he refused to sell his pen to the highest bidder. He points out one of his letters to Rubén Darío, exposed in a showcase: “Here he tells him to return the money he owes or tells him that he really wrote many of his articles.”
In a showcase, original editions of Bohemia lights, De Valle Inclán, they share space with the figurines of the first full representation of the work, which did not premiered in Spain until 1970 even though it had been published in 1920. “First by a series of vicissitudes and then because it was prohibited by Francoist censorship.”
Three engravings of Francisco de Goya deepen the link between the Españo and the Spanish artistic tradition. “As Max Estrella’s own character, protagonist of Bohemia lights, The grove was invented by Goya, ”Martín says. The cartoons cartoons of The whims They anticipate the distorted aesthetics of the work.
The route concludes with a reflection that connects past and present. “Bohemia is a form of discomfort, protest, but not only with the arts, but also very committed to the people, with the most disadvantaged,” says Martín. And, in a nod to the installation that receives the visitor, he adds: “It is no accident that when entering the exhibition, instead of looking, you feel that they are looking at you.”