Gerda Taro (1910-1937) was a photojournalist ahead of her time whose brief career produced almost exclusively the horrific photographs taken at the front in the Spanish Civil War. Her images, reproduced widely in the French left-wing press, incorporated elements typical of the New Vision, a movement appearing in Germany around 1920, along with a physical and emotional proximity to the subject. Taro worked closely with Robert Capa, her collaborator and lover. In July1937, while she was covering the decisive battle for Brunete, she was killed under the tracks of a tank. Her photographs are a splendid although little known testimony to that crucial moment in the history of war photography. The ICP conserves the largest collection of her work, made up of originals on paper and negatives. This exhibition, the first major retrospective ever dedicated to this photojournalist, and which can now be seen exceptionally in Spain, presents photographs, books and magazines in which Taro's pictures were used.
Also in the exhibition are two unpublished photographs coming from what is known as the Mexican suitcase, recovered in Mexico in 2007. Study of them has shed light on photos of the Spanish Civil War taken by Capa, Taro and their fellow photojournalist David Seymour (Chim).
Sharing the room with this show, the museum is exhibiting This is war! Robert Capa at Work, dedicated to this pioneering war photojournalist.
The Museu Nacional is playing host to the two exhibitions precisely in 2009, the 70th anniversary of the end of the Spanish Civil War.
Exhibition catalogue
Exhibition organized by the International Center of Photography, New York (ICP) in co-production with the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.
