Date: 1954
Size: 42 x 21.5 inches
Artist: Juan Reus and Luis Garcia Campo
About this Poster: This unique and colourful poster features a bullfighting painting by Spanish artist Luis Garcia Campo. It advertises "Corridas Generals" or bullfights in the city of Bilbao during the month of August. The matadors featured are Cayetano Ordoñez, Juan Silveti, Julio Aparicio, Antonio Ordoñez, Manolo Vazquez, Jumillano, Pedres, Antoñete, Chicuelo II, and the rejoneador Angel Peralta. Next to the matadors, the print advertises "Ganaderia," or livestock.
This piece was printed at Imprenta y Litografía Ortega in Valencia, Spain. Ortega Printing excelled in lithography, banknote production, and especially in bullfighting and festival posters, where it was the leading company in Spain. Its golden age was from the 1920s to the 1940s, thanks to collaborations with renowned masters of bullfighting-themed painting such as Carlos Ruano Llopis, Juan Reus, and José Cros Estrems. (La imprenta)
Spanish-style bullfighting is called corrida de toros (coursing of bulls) or la fiesta ("the festival"). In the traditional corrida, three matadors each fight two bulls. The modern corrida is highly ritualized, with three distinct stages or tercios "thirds"); the start of each being announced by a bugle sound. In the final stage, the tercio de muerte ("the third of death"), the Matadore emerges with a red handkerchief, the iconic symbol of the sport.
American author Ernest Hemingway wrote of it in his 1932 non-fiction book Death in the afternoon: "Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter's honor." Bullfighting is seen by some as a symbol of Spanish national culture.
The poster is in excellent condition and ready to be framed !