Arc-Voltaic was published in 1918. The magazine consists of: this cover page featuring Joan Miró’s illustration, three
poems in Catalan, an essay printed in French and Italian, a Vibrationist
drawing, and concludes with a poem in Castilian. The avant-garde poets and artists collaborating on the only edition
of Arc-Voltaic were working against
the restrictive aesthetic agenda of Noucentisme
movement, which championed a Classical Mediterranean style. However, the Arc-Voltaic artists’ relationship to the cultural movement is complex.
The Catalan avant-garde
was not seeking a complete, radical rupture from Noucentisme, because part of its philosophy was attractive to
artists included in the magazine like Miró and Joaquín Torres-Garcia. The female nude in Miró’s cover
illustration exemplifies this tension.
Stylistically, it breaks with Noucentisme’s
emphasis on classicism, ideal proportions, harmony, order, and balance; but the
subject matter resonates with the nationalist agenda of the movement, in its
attempt to give shape to an essential Catalan community that is akin to ancient
Greco-Roman civilizations.
For more on Noucentisme-
Fundació Joan Miró-
Email me for more on Arc-Voltaic. For excellent academic studies on Miró, I recommend works by Robin Greeley and Robert Lubar.
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