Line of Light and Shadow: The Drawings of Federico Garcia Lorca

Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936), Spain's great modern poet and playwright, produced a body of visual art that has gone largely unnoticed. Lorca's drawings - executed on inexpensive paper in pencil, ink, crayon, pastel and gouache - span his career. Assimilating themes and motifs from Dalf, Miro, Picabia and Picasso, Lorca's graphic works include self-portraits, abstract sketches, still lifes, doodles and drawings of sailors, Andalusian gypsies and Spanish ladies. In a series of essays, Mario Hernandez comments on different themes in the drawings, showing how they serve as an indispensable aid to the interpretation of Lorca's lyrical world. Many of these sketches were made in copies of his books dedicated to friends in Spain, the USA and Latin America, and some of them illustrate particular texts.