Barcelona Llibres

The novels and stories of Pere Calders (1912-1994) are modern classics. They talk about 20th-century utopias (technical marvels and unbeatable giant transatlantic ships) and how fate and chance bury human dreams and vanity. This book shows a lesser-known side of Calders: publicity artist, puppeteer, book cover designer and author of encyclopaedia engravings. This is the result of some fruitful research enabling a string of unpublished drawings to be retrieved, and more than anything, connections to be made between literary and graphic works.

The book presents the first Calders, author of articles about futurism and surrealism, in favour of renewing the arts, connected with more modern art trends. During the Spanish Civil War, he published provocative cartoons featuring the likes of Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, the Non-Intervention Committee and the “uncontrolled” who cut the grass beneath the feet of the Republic. Calders believed that humour should be free and knew how to put his ideas into practice in a time of militant propaganda and monolithic adhesion.

In Mexico he worked as a professional illustrator with the Diccionario enciclopédico UTEHA while polishing an unforgettable book: Cròniques de la veritat oculta, published in 1955.