Ultraism

The ultraist movement was at the beginning limited to poetry and to a lesser degree to prose. However, it quickly spread to other fields such as painting, sculpture and the graphic arts, as is revealed by the works of Rafael Barradas, the Delaunay couple, Norah Borges, Daniel Vázquez Díaz, Salvador Dalí, Alberto Sánchez or Pancho Cossío. Out of the whole ultraist production of Francisco Bores, the most interesting pieces may be the xylographies. Some of them were published in magazines such as España, Tobogán, Plural or Alfar, and show a clear connection with German Expressionism. In them, the artist recreates motives of the life in Madrid such as cafés, the barber's shop, the circus, the theatre or football. The presence of Bores in the ultraist orbit was late, since he did not join the public acts of the movement and his engravings did not appear in the main magazines of the group, but his link to Ultraism breathed new life into the movement and provided it with a better conclusion. It seems like it was Argentinian Norah Borges who introduced him to the xylographic technique, making her ample collection of publications on German expressionist engravers available for him. Bores practically dedicated the year 1922 and part of 1923 to engraving and his production was much more extensive than what the magazines at the time showed, as is evidenced by the selection of works exhibited here.