Plataforma por el Centro Guerrero

New York, December 1, 2010

This is to voice my dismay at the new of the possible closing of a splendid and essential place like the Centro Guerrero in Granada.

I have just returned from Spain where I came upon the invitation from the center and its director, Yolanda Romero, in coordination with Prof. Juan Calatrava, to participate in a series of four lecture on La Pintura y el Muro.

The series was excellent and gave me, moreover, the opportunity to look--via the work of Guerrero—at my recent book Muralnomad: The Paradox of Wall Painting: Europe 1927-1957 (Yale Univ. Press, 2009) in a new light, that of the small portable mural and the Guerrero as the nomadic artist.

I was amazed when I arrived to Granada (which I last visited 20 years ago!) to see the beauty of this museum (both the architecture and the display of Guerrero’s work) and—just if not more as impressive--the international reach of its exhibitions and lecture program. This center offers Granada an extraordinary platform for events which quality is at par with the best of the best in larger European cities. Some of the best people among my colleagues here in the US have come to lecture at the Centro, many of them, like me, Europeans transplanted in America whose work has focused on the transatlantic dimension of the avant-garde which is what Guerrero’s life and work was so importantly about.

I could not believe, to say the truth, that the place was on the bring of being transformed into something else and loose its global dimension!
This letter is to urge for a reconsideration and rescinding of this decision and a plea to save the Centro for future programming as excellent as the one I was lucky to be involved with two weeks ago during my stay in Spain.

Sincerely

Romy Golan
Professor
The Ph.d Program in Art History
The City University of New York