"Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction..." –Pablo Picasso
Last winter term, the students of Spanish 95 embarked on an exploration of poems and paintings from early twentieth century Spain and Spanish America. Every Wednesday featured a lecture, in English, from Michael Brodeur of the Art department. The lectures focused on artists such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Fernando Botero, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays were dedicated to exploring poems en Español, situating them in the contexts of the avant-garde and modernity and teasing out their connections to the visual arts.
Students not only engaged poetry and painting in class discussions and in their final paper, they also wrote their own poems and also painted a visual reaction to a verbal text. The syllabus, paintings, poems and artwork discussed by the class are available in an online gallery.
This collage by Caroline Paris was made in response to a poem by Gerardo Diego.
Guitarra
Habrá un silencio verde
todo hecho de guitarras destrenzadas.
La guitarra es un pozo
con viento en vez de agua.
Caitlin Michael’s collage is a reaction to the following fragment:
Qué ruido tan triste
Qué ruido tan triste el que hacen dos cuerpos
cuando se aman,
parece como el viento que se mece en otoño
sobre adolescentes mutilados,
mientras las manos llueven,
manos ligeras, manos egoístas, manos
obscenas,
cataratas de manos que fueron un día
flores en el jardín de un diminuto bolsillo.
A Few Student Poems...
Monstruo del mar,
con alas enojadas
– tragas el mundo.–Caitlin Michael
El maremoto
El escenario
de los cristales rotos
mancha el viento sí.
–Gaines Sturdivant
La vela
A oscuras vives,
bailarina del fuego.
Luz seductora.
–Caitlin Michael
La montaña
La montaña gris,
Alta en la distancia,
Llama a mi alma.
–Meghan Jones
Nana de España
La puesta del sol
Tus ojos se encienden
Toro de sangre
–Katey Stazak
