Lorca’s Suites and Canciones: Cubism, Light, and the Uncertainty of Reflections

Abstract

In his 1928 lecture “Thoughts on Modern Art” Lorca declared the need for art to advance “just as science does, day after day, into that incredible field which does become real, toward the absurd which does become the pure edge of truth” (135). Lorca admired the impulse to explore unknown, even risky and nonsensical areas that sciences were modeling so dramatically, venturing against established patterns to reach the unconventional nature of truth. The arts, on the other hand, lagged behind under the burden of long-held models. Suites and Canciones (Songs), the two collections that I will discuss in this chapter, were written in the early 1920s during years when Lorca was living at the Residencia, among the innovative and dynamic spirit of the avant-garde.¹ They have a predominant focus on the physical world and cosmic phenomena, and on exploring poetic imagery and strategies in consonance with the risk-taking spirit Lorca expounded in his lecture. In connection with some of these poems, Lorca produced a number of drawings that, as he wrote to his friend and art critic Sebastià Gasch, helped him deal with subjects that were too lengthy or contained a “poetically stale emotion”; besides, drawing amused him “extraordinarily” (Epistola-rio II74). I will refer to some of these drawings as they pertain to the poetic works.