Poems from the Catalan. Joan Brossa (1919 – 1998) and artist Antoni Tàpies (b. 1923). Courtesy University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.

An exhibition of avant-garde poetry and art inspired by 30 years of political oppression in the Catalan region of Spain is now on at Newcastle University’s Hatton Gallery, and runs until January 8 2005.

Poems from the Catalan focuses on the collaborative work of the Barcelona-born poet Joan Brossa (1919 – 1998) and artist Antoni Tàpies (b. 1923), and was produced in the early 1970s as a response to Generalissimo Franco’s Nationalist regime.

Poems from the Catalan. Joan Brossa (1919 – 1998) and artist Antoni Tàpies (b. 1923). Courtesy University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Franco, who saw the unique Catalan language and culture as a threat to the united Spain he wanted to create, directly targeted both Brossa and Tàpies in the era following the end of the Civil War (1936-39).

This exhibition reflects the artistic ideologies and mutual political concerns of the artist and poet, creating a body of work ranging from the absurd and surreal to the subversive and controversial.

Poems from the Catalan. Joan Brossa (1919 – 1998) and artist Antoni Tàpies (b. 1923). Courtesy University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Exhibition curator Liz Ritson feels the themes explored in these poems and paintings are still significant today.

“These works were produced in direct response to Franco’s Nationalist regime, but they remain poignant in today’s political climate as a passionate and thought-provoking commentary on cultural identity and human rights,” she said.

The exhibition features two folios of poetic and lithographic works by Brossa and Tàpies, which compliment each other as Brossa uses visual elements in his poetry, while Tàpies incorporates letters and text into his lithographs.

Only 81 copies were ever produced and this is the first time they have been displayed together in the UK.

Poems from the Catalan. Joan Brossa (1919 – 1998) and artist Antoni Tàpies (b. 1923). Courtesy University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.

An essay by Dr Montserrat Roser i Puig, a leading expert on Catalan culture, accompanies the poems and Roberto Gerhard, whose music embraces the folk-culture of his native Catalonia, provides a soundtrack from the 1960s.

Poems from the Catalan proudly embraces the unique cultural identity of this region in North East Spain, from Brossa’s description of the provocative gesture of rudeness to authority known as ‘butifarra’ to Tàpies’ demands for liberty and freedom of expression.

As Roland Penrose states in his introduction to Poems from the Catalan, we “recognise the signs, scars and portents of a troubled world just as we enjoy the flashes of wit by which their irrational insight help to restore equilibrium.”