Posters by Carles Fontserè during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
He was a member of the Union of Professional Artists of Catalonia (Sindicat de Dibuixants Professionals de Catalunya, S.D.P.), a union with 1,800 members. When the fascists in the Spanish Army staged a coup against the democratically-elected government in 1936, sparking the civil war, the members of the union coordinated to make antifascist propaganda posters. In his posters, you can see the initials S.D.P. next to his signature.
Here's some of the posters made by Carles Fontserè during the war. They're all written in the Catalan language, so I've added the translation to English under each poster.
Left: Poster with a farmer in front of the FAI (anarchist union)'s flag and the word "freedom!". (MNAC). Right: A soldier in front of the red flag of the communist union P.S.U. - U.G.T. and the text "Forward!". (Archive I.R.)
Posters encouraging rearguard work. Left: "Work for those who fight!" (Archive I.R.). Right: "For the brothers at the front. Women! Work." (Archive I.R.).
Left: Translation: "make tanks, tanks, tanks! They're the vehicles of victory". (MNAC). Right: "Ambulances for the front. Collaborate with this work of the International Red Aid" (Archive I.R.).
Posters issued by the Government of Catalonia. Left: "Let's protect!! our interests by preserving the spare parts and saving up oil". Right: "Regularize the exchange of products with the city." (Catorze).
Of course, after the fascists' victory in the war, he had to go on exile. In 2 years, about 500,000 crossed the Pyrenees mountains to reach asylum in France. The French government responded by locking them in refugee concentration camps, where many died of hunger or cold. Even though most people at the time already knew a trade and would have been able to offer valuable work in France, they were not allowed to leave. Carles Fontserè was also in these camps. After a few attempts of escape, he finally left and established in Paris, facing constant discrimination from French society. He ended going to the USA and worked for the rest of his life as an illustrator and photographer.
Left: A worker without any safety system building a skyscraper in the 6th Avenue, New York (USA). 1960-1962. Right: Girls going up the stairs in Altare della Patria, Rome (Italy). 1963. (Catorze)
He came back to Catalonia in the 1970s, he wrote books about the history of poster artists in the 1930s and art during the Spanish Civil War, as well as autobiographical works. The last years of his life he was very involved with the Comission for Dignity, which worked to restore the memory of antifascist fighters and for the Spanish Government to return the documents that the Fascist regime had stolen from the Government of Catalonia and other antifascist Catalan organizations and individual people (the "Salamanca papers"). These documents are still kidnapped in Salamanca (Castilla, Spain).
This is his last poster I could find:
Illustration of a segador or "reaper" (the repears were the poorest segment of agriculture workers for centuries. During harvest season, they travelled around Catalonia reaping the fields. They became a symbol of Catalan resistance because of the Reapers Revolt of the year 1640, when they killed the Viceroy who represented the Spanish king in Catalonia and was trying to take over with the Spanish authoritarian system), with the Catalan independence flag behind him. He made this illustration for the pro-independence protest day "1707-1997: 290 years of Spanish oppression". (Catalunya país d'arxius, La Mira).
Sources: Enciclopèdia Catalana, Museu d'Història de Catalunya.
