Since the nineteenth century, the process of making up a Galician art movement has gone hand in hand with the idea of reconstructing collective identity and the concept of nation -represented under different denominations depending on the historical time: province, region or nation. Thus, in the past 150 years, all the discussions and references have linked the idea of an own painting and plastic art to general cultural development, in which literature and language play a major role.
It has to be taken into account that the genesis of a Galician nationalist movement plays a key role in the understanding of this process, because it had an influence even on those that were not related to it. What this movement seeks is, in the words of Xoán González-Millán -who follows Jürgen Habermas' approach-, "the creation of a Galician national public space". In the case of plastic arts, this movement has tried to promote the use of Galician in literature, theatre or research into various aspects of the Galician reality. In this regard, the best example is the Seminario de Estudos Galegos, founded in 1923.
This process, aiming to build a national cultural space, accelerated during the first years of the twentieth century, and only slowed down due to the Civil War break. During the years prior to the conflict, substantial attempts were made to renew the plastic art scenario: from Castelao's artworks and reflection on arts, to the so-called Os Novos or Movemento Renovador da Arte Galega, a movement for the renewal of Galician Art, represented by Maside, Souto, Colmeiro, Torres..., as well as those artists from A Coruña gathered around the avant-garde magazine Alfar (Francisco Miguel, Huici). Along with their work, and in order to round it off, there are many attempts of theoretical thought by leading intellectual figures, such as Rafael Dieste.
While Galicia's cultural network, built during the pre-war period, is now completely ruined, there is a significant presence of Galician artists and intellectuals in the Republican Spain, such as Castelao, Arturo Souto, Rafael Dieste, Lorenzo Varela... All of them supported various cultural projects and reflected the socio-political zeitgeist in their work, illustrating and editing cultural publications. Some of them are especially addressed to Galician people, such as the magazine Nova Galicia, published in Barcelona between April 1937 and July 1938. This magazine portrays illustrations by Castelao, particularly his Álbumes de guerra, as well as pictures by Manuel Colmeiro, Arturo Soto -his Debuxos de guerra-, Luis Seoane -his Estampas da traición-, and Ramón Gaya, a remarkable non-Galician artist.
The graphic work carried out by Castelao during this period resulted in his well-known albums Galicia Mártir and Atila en Galicia, both published in Valencia in 1937, and Milicianos, published in New York in 1938. Arturo Souto's work is very remarkable as well. His oil paintings portray the war, but he is better known for his sketches and engravings for propaganda purposes, frequently published in magazines.
When the war finished, hundreds of thousands of people living in Galicia had no alternative but to set off, especially for America, establishing an important intellectual centre. These exiles settled in countries that had traditionally taken emigrants in, such as Argentina, Uruguay or Mexico, even though exiles could be found all over the continent.
Argentina became an essential emigration centre, taking outstanding figures in, such as Castelao and Luis Seoane. And it was in Argentina where the Consello de Galicia was founded in 1944. Writers and painters could be found among Galician exiles: Rafael Dieste, Lorenzo Varela, Maruja Mallo, Manuel Colmeiro, Castelao, Luis Seoane, Arturo Cuadrado, etc. A few years later, artists such as Laxeiro or Isaac Díaz Pardo would join them.
Mexico was another important centre of Galician exile. This country welcomed figures such as Luís Soto, the film maker Carlos Velo or the painter Arturo Souto. Other centres of Galician exiles were the United States and the Caribbean, where painters as Eugenio Granell or Ángel Botello found shelter.
