Picasso in NO-DO: the Documentaries of the Spanish Transition to Democracy

Abstract

This article examines the representation of Pablo Picasso in two documentaries produced by NO-DO during the Spanish “second Transition” to democracy. From the textual analysis of Picasso insólito (Antonio Mercero, 1978) and Especial Picasso (Luis Revenga, 1981), I will address Picasso’s construction as a symbol of national reconciliation. NO-DO, the only authorised source of documentary images under Franco’s dictatorship, continued under the name of Revista Cinematográfica Española until 1981, after being deprived from the exclusive broadcast of documentaries since 1978. Having overcome the ostracism to which the painter had been subjected to for several decades due to his communist militancy, the new cultural elites took advantage of the image of the most important Spanish artist of the 20th century to present him as an advocate of pacifism. To this end, these documentaries exacerbated Picasso's Spanish national identity and offered an opportunistic de-ideologization of his life and work by reinterpreting his iconic Guernica, as well as the dove of peace symbol, to present the artist as a supporter of consensus discourses and thus strengthen the nascent democracy.