Inmaculada Julián The Graphic Representation of Women (1936-1938) Translated by Niamh Collins On a graphical level, the period between 1936-1938 provides us with a series of highly significant details in relation to how women were perceived. Women who, due to their awareness of the Spanish Civil War, were briefly and partially freed from their gender-specific chores so that they could occupy, be it professionally or politically, roles equal to those held by men. Suffice to say the names of two significant women that fought from different ideological stances: politicians Dolores Ibárruri and Federica Montseny. Outside of Spain, the situation was different due to varying parameters in other countries, in which the names of Lou Andreas Salomé, Alma MahlerGropius-Werfel, and Natalia Gontcharova, amongst others, appear. Additionally, there were also the artists that placed themselves on equal footing with their male peers, which is the case for Sophie Taueber-Arp and Hanna Höch. This work will not be based on great women, but rather on the typologies that are depicted in war posters or in artists’ drawings and prints. Thus, it focuses on unknown women and representations of particular moments of the past. Graphic representations that had to fulfil a specific and definite function: to persuade women from different backgrounds to engage in battle. This analysis must be addressed using iconographical assumptions in order to examine the iconic prototypes at hand. In this way, the linguistic binomial of graphic representation and reality can be approached; a binomial which refers to patterns of behaviour, everyday life, personalities, and rules of value, amongst other things.
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