Exhibition Opens in Alicante: Art in a Wasteland, 1939-1959
Alicante Contemporary Art Museum is set to welcome visitors on October 11 with a new show called Art in a Wasteland, 1939-1959, featuring works from the Valencia Institute of Modern Art collection. The exhibition has already traveled through the Museu de Belles Arts de Castelló and now continues its journey at the Alicante venue, with a fresh display of new pieces scheduled for October 19.
The curators describe the project as a chance to revisit a decisive era. IVAM frames the theme as a study in contrasts, presenting antagonistic worlds and divergent paths that nonetheless arise from a shared sense of desolation. The exhibition surveys the impact of war and its aftermath on art, inviting viewers to explore how artists confronted disruption and change during those years.
Highlights include a strong showing of IVAM studies integrated with works by artists such as Albers, Alfaro, Blasco, Brossa, Buch, Buñuel, Chillida, Dubuffet, Duchamp, Ferrant, Juana Frances, Manolo Gil, Jacinta Gil, Julio González, Gorky, Gottlieb, Gumbau, Lucebert, Soulages, Masson, Michaux, Millares, Miró, Newman, Oteiza, Palau-zuelo, Pascual de Lara, Renau, Matilde Salvador, Saura, Sempere, and Tàpies, along with a photographic look at daily life reconstruction by Català-Roca, Miguel, and the Swimwear Brothers. Although IVAM notes only limited information about the catalog, the studies are understood to dialogue with parts of the MACA collection at the same time.
These years followed two devastating conflicts and marked a pause or a dramatic interruption in Spain’s cultural history. Under dictatorship, a national cultural program controlled by the Falange promoted a return to traditional, academical forms and Catholic values, often at the expense of avant-garde experimentation. Yet even under censorship, artists sought to preserve or reinvent the experimental spirit, sometimes working in isolation or within informal groups.
In the 1950s, official tolerance began to loosen, allowing bolder experiments and new forms. Abstraction emerged as a central debate, challenging established meanings and possibilities. Sacred art began to serve as a bridge toward more contemporary expressions. At the same time, the Cold War climate cast art as a symbol of openness and freedom, aligning with broader diplomatic outreach to the United States.
The era’s harsh political landscape left a lasting mark. The rise of Nazism resulted in severe restrictions on cultural expression and extensive exile of artists and intellectuals. By 1939, German troops invaded Poland, and by 1941 much of Europe was under occupation. As the Nazi advance progressed, many artists fled, reshaping art scenes across the world. The Republican defeat in Spain pushed a large exodus of creators, with the Spanish diaspora fueling artistic renewal in destinations such as Paris, Mexico, and the United States. This migration helped seed new movements and collaborations in host regions.
After World War II, Europe found itself redefining its cultural footprint. Across both sides of the Atlantic, the trauma of war and the perceived erosion of traditional cultural frameworks prompted a search for renewal in form, material, and method. A sense emerged that a fresh start was needed. Artists began to test boundaries, balancing pure visual exploration with narrative elements, prioritizing individual freedom and personal expression. The era became a time when art began to reflect on its own purpose and potential, turning the process of making art into the subject itself.
Nuría Enguita, director of IVAM, noted appreciation for MACA’s openness in hosting the IVAM exhibition. The Alicante presentation serves two strategic aims for IVAM: to act as a traveling museum that operates within and beyond the Valencian Community, and to revisit inherited contexts and discourses through new encounters with audiences.
Rosa Maria Castells, MACA’s curator, emphasized the exhibition’s significance in framing one of the era’s most contested historical moments. Castells described how the program helps situate artworks within concrete social realities and the political conditions of their time. Reading a novel within the MACA exhibition schedule fosters connections, synchronicities, and shared gestures among artists, works, and collections.
Three Focus Areas in the Exhibition
The first focus reflects how French art and culture, during 1939-1959, served as a major propaganda tool. In the 1940s, Falangist culture and National Catholicism urged a retreat from earlier avant-garde movements and a return to forms aligned with the national spirit instead of individual experimentation. Despite censorship and heavy control of cultural production, some artists persisted, either solo or in groups, attempting to sustain the innovative impulse.
In the 1950s, the state gradually permitted more experimental artistic practices. Abstraction rose to prominence, sparking vigorous debate about its meaning and potential. Paradoxically, sacred art began to act as a gateway to more contemporary expressions. In the Cold War context, avant-garde art was used to project openness and freedom, while diplomatic ties with the United States intensified.
The rise of Nazism created a brutal suppression of liberties and targeted persecution of cultural forms deemed divergent from the Third Reich. Large-scale exile followed, especially after the Spanish Republican defeat. The waves of Spanish and European exile enriched artistic scenes in host countries, with renewed creativity emerging through displacement and cross-cultural exchange.
Postwar Europe redefined its cultural center. Across the Atlantic, the war’s trauma fueled a renewed interest in new methods, materials, and ways of seeing. This period sparked a shift toward experimentation, challenging established rules and exploring memory, rupture, and transformation as artists reimagined what art could be. The era became a turning point where art examined itself with renewed urgency and purpose.