Ismael de la Serna (1895-1968): A Reassessment of his Art and Career between 1905 and 1942

• Autores: David Luquero Jimeno
• Directores de la Tesis: Grace Brockington (dir. tes.), Tim Rees (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la University of Bristol ( Reino Unido ) en 2024
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: research-information.bris.ac.uk
• Resumen

  • This thesis reassesses the career and stylistic evolution of the Spanish painter Ismael González de la Serna (1895 – 1968) between 1905 and 1942, from his first training in Granada until the German Occupation of France. Although the artist developed a remarkable, international career as a School of Paris painter, and important museum collections hold his works of art, there is a dearth of scholarship on his art and life. The dissertation argues that his career and stylistic evolution relied on two factors: his engagement with international, supporting networks composed mainly of dealers and critics and contemporary economic and political events that affected such networks. Each of the four chapters analyses his career and style in different periods by focusing on those factors, thus providing an original, updated and more rigorous picture of his career and style. The dissertation analyses his training, style and career in Spain (1905 – 1921). It also analyses his engagement with the international dealer-critic system after moving to Paris (1921 – 1930), and the mechanisms that facilitated his international dissemination. It provides an analysis of his style during that period by considering his relationships and position within the dealer-critic system. It examines the brief, complex period in which he returned to Spain due to the effects of the 1929 crisis on the art market. Particularly, it analyses the cultural projects he joined during his brief stay in Spain (1932 – 1933) under the Second Spanish Republic and the significance of his style in the context of Spanish politics and culture. Finally, the dissertation analyses how totalitarianism, violence and war affected his style and career between 1934 and 1942. New evidence supports the reassessment developed in the dissertation, including archive documents, correspondence, press reviews and articles from Spanish, French, German and North American sources.