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| Círculo y Cuadrado | |
|---|---|
| Name | Círculo y Cuadrado |
| Type | Art group / Manifesto |
| Period | Early 20th century |
| Founded | 1930s |
| Location | Madrid |
| Notable members | María Blanchard, Joaquín Torres García, Manuel Ángeles Ortiz |
Círculo y Cuadrado is an avant-garde Spanish art collective and publication formed in Madrid in the early 20th century that proposed a synthesis of geometric abstraction and intellectual manifesto. The group positioned itself amid contemporaneous movements and interlocutors such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich to argue for a specifically Iberian modernism. Its founding circle included artists, critics, and poets who engaged with institutions and events like the Museo del Prado, Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Bienal de Venecia, Exposición Internacional de Barcelona, and publications such as La Gaceta Literaria.
Círculo y Cuadrado originated from salons and debates influenced by figures such as Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Federico García Lorca, Rafael Alberti and exchanges with émigré artists linked to Paris, Moscow, Berlin, New York. Founders cited theoretical work by Henri Bergson, Giorgio de Chirico, André Breton, Le Corbusier and referenced exhibitions at institutions such as Galerie Pierre, Galerie Maeght, Tate Modern, Museum of Modern Art to situate their program. Manifesto drafts circulated among intellectuals including José Ortega y Gasset, Miguel de Unamuno, Antonio Machado, and editors from Revista de Occidente, aiming to reconcile debates seen at the Salon des Indépendants, Der Sturm, and The Eight.
Membership combined painters, sculptors, critics, and writers, comprising contributors linked to studios or schools connected to Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, La Escuela de Vallecas, and workshops associated with Mariano Fortuny, Ignacio Zuloaga, José Gutiérrez Solana. Core artists exhibited alongside guests from Catalonia and Andalucía and collaborated with curators from Museo Reina Sofía, Palacio de Velázquez, Fundación Juan March, Fundación Telefónica. Administrative structures borrowed models from Sociedad de Artistas Ibéricos, Asociación de Pintores Modernos, and international federations like Union des Artistes Modernes and International Avant-Garde Committee; funding came via patrons similar to Eugenio d'Ors, Count de Saint-Exupéry, and municipal councils in Madrid and Barcelona.
Aesthetic priorities invoked precedents such as Cubism, Futurism, Suprematism, De Stijl and dialogues with composers like Igor Stravinsky, Erik Satie, Manuel de Falla and writers such as James Joyce, Marcel Proust, T. S. Eliot who frequented modernist circles. Visual language emphasized planar geometry, color fields, typographic experimentation and collage techniques seen in work by Hannah Höch, Kurt Schwitters, Pablo Gargallo, and Alexander Calder. The group debated iconography with art historians and critics connected to Aby Warburg, Ernst Gombrich, Lionello Venturi and engaged with architectural theory from Antonio Gaudí, Luis Barragán, Auguste Perret, often staging exhibitions in spaces curated by teams from Centre Pompidou, Palazzo Grassi, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf to test spatial hypotheses.
Critical reception ranged from acclaim in periodicals like ABC (Spain), El País, La Vanguardia to condemnation by conservative journals aligned with figures such as José Antonio Primo de Rivera and debates in parliamentary commissions influenced by Miguel de las Muñecas and municipal cultural committees. International reviewers compared the group to movements associated with Bauhaus, Fluxus, Concrete Art and commentators including Clement Greenberg, Herbert Read, Harold Rosenberg weighed in. Retrospective exhibitions prompted reassessments in catalogues assembled by scholars from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad de Salamanca, Universidad de Barcelona, with symposiums featuring speakers from Courtauld Institute, Columbia University, Princeton University.
Legacy is evident in later Spanish modernist and postmodern practices linked to artists and institutions such as Antoni Tàpies, Eduardo Chillida, Antoni Gaudí (influence), Oscar Mariné, and museums like Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and Fundación MAPFRE. Pedagogical impacts reached programs at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona, and inspired curatorial strategies in international biennials including Bienal de São Paulo, Venice Biennale, Documenta and initiatives by galleries like Sánchez-Montaner Gallery and Galería Marlborough. Scholarship continues across dissertations at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, monographs from Taschen, Thames & Hudson and digital archives curated by Biblioteca Nacional de España and Europeana.
Category:Spanish art movements