With exhibit curator Ana Merino (University of Iowa), and contributing scholars Dolores Jiménez Blanco (Universidad Complutense, Madrid) and Lucía Cotarelo Esteban (Universitat Autònoma, Barcelona)

Introduced by Christine Martínez (NYU)

Tuesday, November 1, 2022, 7:00 pm
KJCC, 53 Washington Square S, NY 10012 In Spanish. Reception to follow.

A roundtable to discuss the origins of the exhibit, the evolution of the project, and the role of comics in reflecting on the legacy of Spain’s heritage in the US.

Watch the roundtable below or here.

“Illustrating Spain in the U.S.” is a project that aims to highlight the presence and legacy of Spain in the U.S., from the role of Spaniard’s in the Revolutionary War to the impact of Spanish artists, writers, and scientists on contemporary culture today. The project started as a series of comics created by Spanish artists in collaboration with scholars around themes like immigration, modern art, cinema, and Hispanism, to name a few. The comic strips have been blown up and printed onto banners that now hang across two floors of the KJCC, and are on view through December 16, 2022.

Ana Merino is an award-winning writer and a professor at the University of Iowa. She has written extensive criticism on comics and graphic novels. She has two academic books, a monograph on Chris Ware, and has curated five comic book exhibitions. Between 2001-and 2011 she was a Member of the ICAF (International Comic Arts Forum) Executive Committee; and between 2004 and 2014, Directors Board Founder Member at The Center for Cartoon Studies.

Dolores Jiménez-Blanco is a distinguished Spanish art historian, whose main field of interest is the relationship between art and politics in 20th century Spain. Since 1995 she has been a faculty member of the Department of Art History III (Contemporary) of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and from 2002 to 2006 she taught at the Departament d’Humanitats of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona. Her doctoral dissertation, published in 1989 under the title of “Arte y Estado en la España del siglo XX” (Art and State in 20th Century Spain), became a reference for the study of Spanish State policies towards modern art, focusing on the dysfunctional relationship between modern art and official museums. Jiménez Blanco held the Fall 2017 King Juan Carlos Chair in Spanish Culture and Civilization at NYU. Her latest appointments include: Director of the Art History Department, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2018-2020) and Director General of Fine Arts, Ministry of Culture, Government of Spain (2020-2021).

Lucía Cotarelo Esteban teaches Spanish Contemporary Literature at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She got her PhD in Spanish Literature from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She is an expert on the culture and literature of Spanish Republican exiles in the U.S., and a member of the research group GEXEL (Grupo de Estudios del Exilio Republicano). She was a Visiting Scholar at New York University (2017) and Boston University (2018), and she is currently in the U.S. as a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University, with a grant from the Spanish Government while she develops a project on Spanish Women exiled in the U.S. She recently published the book Spain in the Hudson. Los poetas del exilio republicano español (Visor, 2022).

Christine Martínez is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Public Humanities at the NYU Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

More information here: https://www.spainculture.us/digital-projects/illustrating-spain-in-the-us/

Co-sponsored by SPAIN arts & culture. SPAIN arts & culture is organized by the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain in Washington D.C. and its network of General Consulates, and the Spain-USA Foundation.