Biography

Helios Gómez

Helios Gómez, born in 1905 in the Triana district of Seville, was trained at the Seville Industrial Arts and Crafts School, and at the town's Cartuja factory, as a painter and decorator on ceramics. His first works were published in the anarchist newspaper Páginas Libres and he also illustrated books by Seville authors such as Rafael Laffon and Felipe Alaiz. In 1925, he held his first exhibition at the Kursaal in Seville, and had another exhibition a year later at the Ateneo in Madrid and at the Dalmau Gallery in Barcelona. As he was strongly convinced of the urgency of political change, he joined anarchist groups, and decided thereafter to speak, write and paint according to his chosen political principles.


According to Jean Cassou, he was an artist because he was a revolutionary and a revolutionary because he was was an artist. In 1927, forced to leave Seville for political reasons, he went into exile in Paris. There he held exhibitions in several galleries and contributed as a graphic artist to the Spanish exile newspapers Tiempos Nuevos and Rebelión, and to the weekly Vendredi. He was arrested for taking part in a protest demonstration against the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti and deported from France. He then settled in Brussels where he exhibited, worked as decorator, and illustrated Max Deauville's book, Rien qu'un Homme. In 1928, he left for Amsterdam, Vienna, then Berlin and travelled in the USSR for two months. En 1929, he settled in Berlín, where he held exhibitions, contributed to several publications, including the Berliner Tageblatt, and attended typography and interior design classes. At the beginning of 1930, the Socialist International (AIT) published his first album Días de ira.


After the fall of Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, at the end of 1930, Helios returned to Spain and settled in Barcelona, contributing to several journals, L'Opinió, La Rambla, La Batalla, L'Hora, Bolivar and Nueva España and creating book covers and illustrations, mainly for left wing publications. This was the year in which he published the manifesto Por qué me marcho del anarquismo (Why I am quitting anarchism) and joined the Comunist Catalano-Balearic Federation, part of the BOC (Bloc Obrer i Camperol, the Workers and Peasant's Bloc). He was expelled shortly afterwards because of his antidogmatic stand. In 1931, he joined the PDC and ilustrated Mundo Obrero. In 1932, he was arrested in Madrid for his political activism and was imprisoned and transfered to the Jaén prison.

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He was granted bail to attend, as the Spanish representative, the International Congress of Proletarian Artist, held in the USSR, to whisch he had been invited by VOKS. He seized this opportunity to settle in the USSR until 1934. During this period, he visited Leningrad, lived in Moscow, and exhibited at the Pushkin Museum in 1933. Public Art Editions published his second album, Revolución Española.

His work departed from abstract figures to adopt a more politically committed realism, easy to decipher and whith a strong social content, but different from socialist realism, which he constantly criticised. He returned to Barcelona during the summer of 1934, but was arrested again in the autumn in connection with the workers uprising in Catalonia. He again left for Brussels where he published, at the beginning of 1935 his third album, on the 1934 events, entitled Viva Octubre.


 He returned to Barcelona in 1935, and following the legalisation of left-wing organisations, with other artists of th Els Sis group, in 1936 he founded the Sindicat de Dibuixants Profesionals (The Union of Professional Designers), which was to launch the activist poster movement during the Civil War, thanks to intensive production of anarchist and republican posters. He also produced work for many publications as well as paintings on the war, approaching surrealism. At the beginning of the Civil War, he took to the barricades in the defence of Barcelona and joined the Aliança d'Intel·lectuals Antifeixistes de Catalunya ( the Catalonian Alliance of Antifascist Intellectuals). He was appointed Political Commissar of the UGT (General Workers Union), and as such organised the Ramón Casanellas Column, sailed with the Bayo expedition to free Ibiza and Majorca, and joined the fronts in Aragon, Madrid and Andalusia. In charge of culture in the 26 th Divison, he designed the masthead and artwork of the newspaper El Frente, and organized the exhibition in homage to Durruti in Barcelona.


eAt the end of the war, he went into exile in France where he was interned successively in the concentration camps in Argelès-sur-mer, Bram and Vernet in the Ariège, and then was deported to the French camp in Djelfa (Algeria), between February 1939 and May 1942


.Back in Barcelona in 1942, he founded the short-lived group LNR  Liberación Nacional Republicana, Republican National Liberation) and the Casa de Andalucía (the House of Andalucia). In 1948, he exhibited works of a surrealist style in the Arnaiz gallery, in Barcelona, and created murals for decorating various venues, the Colon jazz club and the San Jaime University Hall of Residence in Barcelona.


(Between 1945-46 and 1948-54, he was arrested and imprisoned in th Modelo prison in Barcelona, where he painted the oratory known as the Capilla Gitana.


In spite of a liberation order signed in 1950, he was illegally detained for four more years and he died in Barcelona two years after his release in 1956

Helios Gómez, born in 1905 in the Triana district of Seville, was trained at the Seville Industrial Arts and Crafts School, and at the town's Cartuja factory, as a painter and decorator on ceramics. His first works were published in the anarchist newspaper Páginas Libres and he also illustrated books by Seville authors such as Rafael Laffon and Felipe Alaiz. In 1925, he held his first exhibition at the Kursaal in Seville, and had another exhibition a year later at the Ateneo in Madrid and at the Dalmau Gallery in Barcelona. As he was strongly convinced of the urgency of political change, he joined anarchist groups, and decided thereafter to speak, write and paint according to his chosen political principles.


According to Jean Cassou, he was an artist because he was a revolutionary and a revolutionary because he was was an artist. In 1927, forced to leave Seville for political reasons, he went into exile in Paris. There he held exhibitions in several galleries and contributed as a graphic artist to the Spanish exile newspapers Tiempos Nuevos and Rebelión, and to the weekly Vendredi. He was arrested for taking part in a protest demonstration against the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti and deported from France.

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He then settled in Brussels where he exhibited, worked as decorator, and illustrated Max Deauville's book, Rien qu'un Homme. In 1928, he left for Amsterdam, Vienna, then Berlin and travelled in the USSR for two months. En 1929, he settled in Berlín, where he held exhibitions, contributed to several publications, including the Berliner Tageblatt, and attended typography and interior design classes. At the beginning of 1930, the Socialist International (AIT) published his first album Días de ira.


After the fall of Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, at the end of 1930, Helios returned to Spain and settled in Barcelona, contributing to several journals, L'Opinió, La Rambla, La Batalla, L'Hora, Bolivar and Nueva España and creating book covers and illustrations, mainly for left wing publications. This was the year in which he published the manifesto Por qué me marcho del anarquismo (Why I am quitting anarchism) and joined the Comunist Catalano-Balearic Federation, part of the BOC (Bloc Obrer i Camperol, the Workers and Peasant's Bloc). He was expelled shortly afterwards because of his antidogmatic stand. In 1931, he joined the PDC and ilustrated Mundo Obrero. In 1932, he was arrested in Madrid for his political activism and was imprisoned and transfered to the Jaén prison. He was granted bail to attend, as the Spanish representative, the International Congress of Proletarian Artist, held in the USSR, to whisch he had been invited by VOKS. He seized this opportunity to settle in the USSR until 1934. During this period, he visited Leningrad, lived in Moscow, and exhibited at the Pushkin Museum in 1933. Public Art Editions published his second album, Revolución Española.


His work departed from abstract figures to adopt a more politically committed realism, easy to decipher and whith a strong social content, but different from socialist realism, which he constantly criticised. He returned to Barcelona during the summer of 1934, but was arrested again in the autumn in connection with the workers uprising in Catalonia. He again left for Brussels where he published, at the beginning of 1935 his third album, on the 1934 events, entitled Viva Octubre.


He returned to Barcelona in 1935, and following the legalisation of left-wing organisations, with other artists of the Els Sis group, in 1936 he founded the Sindicat de Dibuixants Profesionals (The Union of Professional Designers), which was to launch the activist poster movement during the Civil War, thanks to intensive production of anarchist and republican posters. He also produced work for many publications as well as paintings on the war, approaching surrealism. At the beginning of the Civil War, he took to the barricades in the defence of Barcelona and joined the Aliança d'Intel·lectuals Antifeixistes de Catalunya ( the Catalonian Alliance of Antifascist Intellectuals). He was appointed Political Commissar of the UGT (General Workers Union), and as such organised the Ramón Casanellas Column, sailed with the Bayo expedition to free Ibiza and Majorca, and joined the fronts in Aragon, Madrid and Andalusia. In charge of culture in the 26 th Divison, he designed the masthead and artwork of the newspaper El Frente, and organized the exhibition in homage to Durruti in Barcelona.


At the end of the war, he went into exile in France where he was interned successively in the concentration camps in Argelès-sur-mer, Bram and Vernet in the Ariège, and then was deported to the French camp in Djelfa (Algeria), between February 1939 and May 1942.


Back in Barcelona in 1942, he founded the short-lived group LNR ( Liberación Nacional Republicana, Republican National Liberation) and the Casa de Andalucía (the House of Andalucia). In 1948, he exhibited works of a surrealist style in the Arnaiz gallery, in Barcelona, and created murals for decorating various venues, the Colon jazz club and the San Jaime University Hall of Residence in Barcelona.


Between 1945-46 and 1948-54, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Modelo prison in Barcelona, where he painted the oratory known as the Capilla Gitana.


In spite of a liberation order signed in 1950, he was illegally detained for four more years and he died in Barcelona two years after his release in 1956.


Publications

Gabriel Gomez Plana, A gypsy in the City of Boys, Helios Gómez Cultural Association, Barcelona, 2020. 207 pages (21 x 29 cm)


This book collects the memory of his family, his own experience in a Barcelona City Council charity boarding school and the search for the traces of his father, Helios Gómez (1905-1956). A graphic designer and poster father who was active with weapons and brushes in the libertarian and communist movements for social justice, of whom he recounts his odyssey in Europe as a political exile, during the Second Republic, in the civil war and, after the Retirement, in camps concentration in France and Algeria.


While the father is persecuted and imprisoned on his return to Spain, ending his days after a long detention in the Modelo de Barcelona where he left his testimony of resistance in the well-known Gypsy Chapel, the son is admitted to a municipal charity center. The institutional sources found in the archives of France and Spain contrast the lived reality.


The documentation associated with the memory -a hundred photographs, the direct testimonies of the father's friends and the exhibition of the references in the archives- give an exhaustive vision of this history recovered over three generations.


(Available in our association at €30)

Firmly convinced of the need for political change, he adhered to anarchist groups. And, from the first moment, he decides to speak, paint and write based on the same principle, in accordance with his political option. In the words of Jean Cassou he was "an artist for being a revolutionary and a revolutionary for being an artist". In 1927, forced to leave Spain for political reasons, he went into exile in Paris, being expelled for his participation in the protests against the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti. He settled in Brussels, where he exhibited, worked as a decorator and illustrated the work Rien qu'un homme, by Max Deauville. In 1928 he traveled to Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin and, for two months, to the Soviet Union. In 1929 he settled in Berlin, where he exhibited, collaborated in some publications such as the Berliner Tageblatt and followed training courses in typography and interior design.


At the beginning of 1930, the International Labor Association (AIT) publishes its first album in Berlin Days of Rage . After the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, at the end of 1930, Helios returned to Spain, settling in Barcelona, where he collaborated in numerous republican and communist magazines such as L'Opinió, La Rambla, La Batalla, L'Hora, Bolívar and Nueva España. , and makes book covers and illustrations, mainly for left-wing organs. It is the year in which he published the manifesto Why I am leaving anarchism and joined the Catalan-Balearic Communist Federation, joining the BOC (Bloc Obrer i Camperol), from which he would be expelled shortly after.

In 1931 he joined the PCE, collaborating as an illustrator for Mundo Obrero. Arrested in Madrid in 1932 for his militancy, he is imprisoned and transferred to Jaén prison. Get provisional freedom escaping to Brussels. There he attended the great Borinage mining strikes and published a drawing in the Drapeau Rouge, before leaving for the USSR in October responding to the VOLK's invitation to participate as a Spanish representative in the International Congress of Proletarian Artists.


He lived in the country until February 1934, lived in Moscow, traveled to Leningrad and Siberia, exhibited at the Pushkin Museum in 1933, and the State Art Publishing House published his second album, Revolución española. His work abandons abstract elements to search for an impressive realism, easy to read and strong social content, far from the socialist realism that he would always criticize. He returned to Barcelona in the spring of 1934, but was arrested again in the autumn in the context of the workers' uprising in Catalonia and, once released, he returned to Brussels where his third album, about the events of 1934, was published at the beginning of 1936. Long live October.


In 1935, he founded the Els Sis group in Barcelona with other artists and, in 1936, the left-wing organizations were once again legalized, the Union of Professional Cartoonists, which would promote militant poster-making during the war with an intensive production of anarchist and republican posters. He also draws for numerous publications and paints pictures about the war.


At the beginning of the civil war, he fought on the barricades for the defense of Barcelona and joined the Aliança d'Intel·lectuals Antifeixistes de Catalunya. Appointed political commissioner of the UGT, he organized the Ramón Casanellas Column, embarked with the Bayo expedition to liberate Ibiza and Mallorca and intervened on the fronts of Aragon, Madrid and Andalusia.

Militiaman of Culture of the 26th Division, he is in charge of the header and layout of the newspaper El Frente, as well as the organization of the exhibition tribute to Durruti in Barcelona.


After the war was lost, he took refuge in France where he was interned in the concentration camps of Argelés-sur-mer, Bram, le Vernet d'Ariège and Djelfa (Algeria), between February 1939 and May 1942. In 1942 he returned to Barcelona , creating the ephemeral group LNR (Republican National Liberation) and the House of Andalusia.


In 1948 he presented an exhibition at the Arnaiz Gallery with works of a surreal nature and during his last years he made decorative murals such as those of the Jazz Colón and the San Jaime Residence in Barcelona. Between 1945-46 and 1948-54 he was arrested and imprisoned in the Modelo prison in Barcelona, where he painted an oratorio known as the Gypsy Chapel and composed a corpus of poetry.


Despite the release order signed in 1950, he is held prisoner for 4 more years and dies two years later, in Barcelona, in 1956.


Gabriel Gómez Plana, A Gypsy in the City of Boys, Helios Gómez Cultural Association, Barcelona, 2020. 207 pages (21 x 29 cm)


This book collects the memory of his family, his own experience in a Barcelona City Council charity boarding school and the search for the traces of his father, Helios Gómez (1905-1956). A graphic designer and poster father who was active with weapons and brushes in the libertarian and communist movements for social justice, of whom he recounts the odyssey in Europe as a political exile, during the Second Republic, in the civil war and, after the withdrawal, in camps concentration in France and Algeria.

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Gabriel Gómez Plana, A Gypsy in the City of Boys, Helios Gómez Cultural Association, Barcelona, 2020. 207 pages (21 x 29 cm)


This book collects the memory of his family, his own experience in a Barcelona City Council charity boarding school and the search for the traces of his father, Helios Gómez (1905-1956). A graphic designer and poster father who was active with weapons and brushes in the libertarian and communist movements for social justice, of whom he recounts the odyssey in Europe as a political exile, during the Second Republic, in the civil war and, after the withdrawal, in camps concentration in France and Algeria.


While the father is persecuted and imprisoned on his return to Spain, ending his days after a long detention in the Modelo de Barcelona, where he left his testimony of resistance in the well-known Gypsy Chapel, the son is admitted to a municipal charity center. The institutional sources found in the archives of France and Spain contrast with the lived reality.


The documentation associated with the memory -a hundred photographs, direct testimonies from the father's friends and the exhibition of the references in the archives- give an exhaustive vision of this story recovered over three generations.


Jordi Font, Gabriel Gómez, Amado Marcellan, Caroline Mignot, Jean Lemaître, Miguel Tilniav, José Luis Jiménez. Helios Gómez, la révolution graphique, ACHG/Association Mémoire Graphique, Barcelona, 2013, 256 pages, (21 x 28 cm).


(Available in our association at €30)

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Gabriel Gómez Plana, Un gitanillo en la ciudad de los muchachos, Helios Gómez Cultural Association, Barcelona, 2020. 207 pages (21 x 29 cm)


This book collects the memory of his family, his own experience in a Barcelona City Council charity boarding school and the search for the traces of his father, Helios Gómez (1905-1956). A graphic artist and poster artist father who was active with weapons and brushes in the libertarian and communist movements for social justice, of whom he recounts his odyssey in Europe as a political exile, during the Second Republic, in the civil war and, after the Retirement, in camps concentration in France and Algeria.

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While the father is persecuted and imprisoned on his return to Spain, ending his days after a long detention in the Modelo de Barcelona where he left his testimony of resistance in the well-known Gypsy Chapel, the son is admitted to a municipal charity center. The institutional sources found in the archives of France and Spain contrast the lived reality.


The documentation associated with the memory -a hundred photographs, the direct testimonies of the father's friends and the exhibition of the references in the archives- give an exhaustive vision of this history recovered over three generations.

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Jordi Font, Gabriel Gómez, Amado Marcellán, Caroline Mignot, Jean Lemaître, Miguel Tilniav, José Luís Jimenez. Helios Gómez, la revolution graphique, ACHG/Association Mémoire Graphique, Barcelona, 2013, 256 páginas, (21 x 28 cm.)


This book presents graphical folders by Helios Gómez: Días de ira (Day of Wrath), Revolución española (Spanish Revolution) Viva October and Horrores de la guerra (Horrors of war). It includes a selection of drawings from the press and numerous illustrations for publishers.


The biography and work of this unique illustrator are critically analysed by different authors.


Published in French, with testimonials from friends and colleagues of Helios Gómez in the original language with translations. Print run of 500 copies

(Available from our association for €30 + postage)


Jordi Font, Gabriel Gómez, Amado Marcellan, Caroline Mignot, Jean Lemaître, Miguel Tilniav, José Luis Jiménez. Helios Gómez, the graphic revolution, ACHG/Association Mémoire Graphique, Barcelona, 2013, 256 pages, (21 x 28 cm.).


This book presents the graphic portfolios of Helios Gómez: Días de ira, Revolución española, Viva october and Horrores de la guerra. Includes a selection of press drawings and numerous editorial illustrations. The biography and work of this unique graphic artist are analyzed with the crossovers of different authors.

Published in French, with testimonials from colleagues of Helios Gómez in their original language and their corresponding translation. (21 x 29cm). Print run of 500 copies.


(Available in our association at €30)

Helios Gómez, Días de Ira, (Days of Wrath) Associació Cultural Helios Gómez, Barcelona 2012, 28 pages (23.5 x 33 cm).


A reprint of the album published in Berlin (1930) and Barcelona (1931). 25 black and white sheets ready for framing with poems by the author. Introduction by Romain Rolland.
Edition in Spanish.
Print run of 100 copies.


(Available from our association for €60 + postage)


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Helios Gomez, Days of Rage, Helios Gómez Cultural Association, Barcelona, 2012. 28 pages, (23.5x33 cm.)


Reissue of the album published in Berlin (1930) and Barcelona (1931). 25 ready-to-frame plates, illustrated in black and white, poems by the author, introduction by Romain Rolland, Spanish edition, (24 x 33 cm). Edition of 100 copies.


(Available in our association at €100)


In 1998, complementing the first monographic exhibition of Helios Gómez at the Valencian Institute of Modern Art (IVAM), he made a biographical documentary.

You can see it if you click here Helios Gomez. Days of Rage

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Gabriel Gómez, Caroline Mignot (Introd.). Helios Gómez, La Revolución Gráfica, A.C.I.M., F.I.M., H.G.C.A., 230 pages, Barcelona, 2009 (20.5 x 28 cm).


This book presents more than two hundred Chinese ink drawings published in the press from the 1930s, as well as a color selection of posters and book covers. (20.5 x 28 cm.)
Spanish edition.

Gabriel Gomez, Caroline Mignot (Introd.), Helios Gómez, the graphic revolution, ACIM, FIM, ACHG, 230 pages, Barcelona, 2009 (21x28 cm.).


This book presents more than two hundred Chinese ink drawings published in the press from the 1930s, as well as a color selection of posters and book covers. (20.5 x 28cm).

Spanish edition.


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Gabriel Gómez, Caroline Mignot (Introd.), Helios Gómez, poemas de lucha y sueños, 1942-1956, ACHG, 400 pages, Barcelona, 2006, (21 x 21 cm).


Helios Gómez was internationally known and valued as an artist in the 1930s, basically for his black and white political drawings. The unpublished poems and drawings in this splendid 400-page book with numerous illustrations allow us to glimpse the brilliance of the soul of this captive artist in the Modelo prison in Barcelona during the Franco regime. (21 x 21cm). Introduction in Spanish, Romani and Catalan. Poems in Spanish.


(Available in our association at €35)

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Gabriel Gomez, Caroline Mignot (Introd.), Helios Gómez, poems of struggle and dream, 1942-1956, ACHG, 400 pages, Barcelona, 2006, (21 x 21 cm).


Helios Gómez was internationally known and valued as an artist in the 1930s, basically for his black and white political drawings. The unpublished poems and drawings in this splendid 400-page book with numerous illustrations allow us to glimpse the brilliance of the soul of this captive artist in the Modelo prison in Barcelona during the Franco regime. (21 x 21cm). Introduction in Spanish, Romani and Catalan. Poems in Spanish.


(Available in our association at €35)

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Gabriel Gómez, Caroline Mignot, Jacques Lemaître: Helios Gómez, Visca Octubre, Museu de Granollers, ACHG, Museu d'Història de Catalunya, CarCob (Bruxelles), 101 pages, Granollers, 2005. (22x30.5 cm.)


Helios Gómez's meeting with Jean Fonteyne in Brussels led to the publication of the album Viva octubre in 1935, made up of 24 drawings on the Spanish revolution, republished in this catalogue. Granollers Museum (30.5 x 21.5 cm).


Two articles set the context of this publication and some reviews summarize the biographies of the artists and intellectuals cited. Edition in Spanish, Catalan and French.

Gabriel Gómez, Caroline Mignot, Jacques Lemaître: Helios Gómez, Visca Octubre, (Long Live October) Museum of Granollers, A.C.H.G, Museu d'Història de Catalunya, CarCob (Brussels), 101 pages, Granollers, 2005. (22x30,5 cm.)


The meeting of Helios Gómez with Jean Fonteyne in Brussels led to the publication of the album Viva October (Long Live October) in 1935, consisting of 24 drawings about the Spanish Revolution, reissued in this catalog. Two articles situate the context of this publication and a few reviews summarize the biographies of these artists and intellectuals.

Published in Spanish, Catalan and French.


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Bibliography

Fundación Pública Andaluza Centro de Estudios Andaluces, Counselor of the Presidency, Junta de Andalucía (Exhibition catalogue): Helios Gómez, drawing in action, 1905-1956. Andalucian Public Foundation Center of Andalusian Studies. Seville, 2010.

IVAM Center Julio González [Exhibition catalogue]: Helios Gómez 1905-1956, Generalitat Valenciana, Valencia, 1998

Ursula Tjaden: Helios Gómez: red tie artist, Txalaparta, Tafalla, 1996.

Carles Fontserè: Memoirs of a poster artist, Portic, Barcelona, 1995.

Ursula Tjaden: Die Hülle zerfetzen Helios Gómez 1905-1956, Andalusian Artist

Kämpfer, Elefanten Press Verlag GmbH, Berlin, 1986.

Juan Manuel Bonet [Intr. Exhibition catalogue]: Art Against the War, Barcelona City Council, Barcelona, 1986.

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