Rafael Alberti

Background

Alberti was born December 16, 1902 in the Andalusian town of Puerto de Santa María, which sits on Spain's Atlantic coast, overlooking the Bay of Cádiz.

Education

When Rafael was 15 his family moved to Madrid, where he studied painting. He attended a Jesuit school there until he reached the age of 15, when he was expelled due to a romantic interest which the Jesuit teachers did not approve of.

Career

Rafael Alberti is regarded today as one of the greatest of modern Spanish poets.

After the Spanish Civil War, he fled the country and lived in exile, first in Argentina, then in Rome, before finally returning to Spain in 1977, after the death of Franco.

In 1920, a friend convinced him to put on a show of his work.

Alberti persisted with his painting for a while longer after this traumatic period, until 1922, when he was struck himself with the early stages of tuberculosis.

There is no clear evidence that the events are related, but it was shortly after this that he gave up painting and concentrated solely on his poetry.

He would not return to painting until much later in life.

His very first collection of poetry, Marinero en tierra, was a tremendous success.

Influenced by the Andalusian folksong of his youth, the work won him the National Prizefor Literature in 1925 and catapulted him to national fame.

"He was immediately accepted into the elite circles of Spanish poetry, the group now known as the "Generation of 1927. "

This band, including such poets as Vicente Aleixandre, Luis Cernuda, Frederico García Lorca, Jorge Guillén, and Pedro Salinas, was widely regarded as the fullest flowering of Spanish verse since the sixteenth century.

Alberti seemed to enjoy the public attention, as well as the company of these fine writers. In 1927, on the 300th anniversary of the death of the great Spanish poet Góngora, Alberti again amazed readers with his skillful and seamless appropriation of Góngora's tradition.

He was no simple mimic, however.

He was equally capable of writing with the exquisite formality of Góngora or with sardonic absurdity, or even of combining the two, as in his "Madrigal on A Tram Ticket. "

His command of Spanish traditional elements was always focused toward creating his own expressions, as were his departures from that tradition.

Subsequently, as his views on Spain began to change from love and remembrance of his Andalusian youth into something more deeply bound with the nation's future, his departures from tradition became more frequent and more severe.

This too surprised his readers.

Such was the case with his 1929 volume, Sobre los ángeles.

The change that occurs in Sobre los ángeles was not an idle one, calculated to achieve some superficial effect.

The year 1929 marked the beginning of a radical transformation for Alberti.

He found himself faced with a great spiritual crisis.

/ Ask it in stillness. "

This was not an unusual situation for a poet in this decade-his colleagues Pablo Neruda, Frederico García Lorca, César Vallejo, T. S. Elliot and many other artists of all sorts experienced similar breakdowns at some point in the 1926, as though the period after the First World War were somehow laced with a premonition of the Second.

Prior to 1931, Alberti had avoided politics altogether.

Alberti reflected the change.

That same year, he began an extended tour of the Americas, a trip that would ultimately stretch over two years.

In 1936, the Spanish Civil War began, with the Nationalist forces of General Francisco Franco pitted against the Loyalists-those who supported the Republic.

The war was devastating, with the Nazis and the Soviets weighing in either side.

Shortly before the fall of Madrid on March 27, 1939, they were evacuated. Alberti spent a brief period in France before moving to Argentina.

His writing slowed slightly, but he returned to painting, and began to ponder ways in which graphics and poetry might be mixed.

The following year he was added to Eleanor Turnbull's anthology. Though he never had quite the international appeal as Lorca, with whom he is often associated, he began to besufficiently recognized as to allow for the extensive touring he undertook between 1944 and 1959.

This period included two trips to China and the Soviet Union, as well as trips to Poland, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Germany, France, and Italy.

Nine volumes of poetry were published during Alberti's stay in Argentina, and for his sixtieth birthday, Losada published his complete works up to that time. As in his younger days, Alberti moved in the most elite circles.

Among his friends were many other expatriates, including Pablo Picasso, César Vallejo, Miguel Angel Asturias, Alejo Carpentier, Boris Pasternak, Louis Aragon, Sergei Eisenstein, Sergei Prokofiev, and André Malraux.

One might almost assume that he enjoyed his status as an exile, were it not for the longing which always moved through his poetry, a nostalgia for his long-lost Andalusia.

In 1964, he relocated to Rome, where he was taken in warmly by the Italian people, who considered him their very own favorite expatriate.

By this time, he was devoted primarily to painting and graphics, though he still wrote occasionally.

On April 27, 1977, after nearly forty years of exile, Alberti was able to return to Spain, following the death of Franco.

He was heartily welcomed by the Spanish people, especially by Spanish communists, who even elected him for a short term to the Cortes-the Spanish legislature.

His plays were staged in Barcelona and Madrid, and interest in his poetry was revived.

A book of poetry To Painting was published in 1997.

Alberti's work is frequently said to span the entire development of modern Spanish poetry, and he is considered to have been one of the greatest influences on that course.

Nor did he limit himself to poetry.

Among his works are books in prose, an autobiography, and several plays.

Another writer on Alberti's poetry noted in 1978 that relatively little has been written about him, particularly by comparison to his Andalusian friend and rival, Lorca.

His return to Spain has done much to change this, but the pendulum is still swinging, and much is left to be done to increase the international awareness of this 20th century Spanish genius.

Achievements

• A member of the group of Spanish poets known as the "Generation of 1927, " Rafael Alberti was forced to leave his home at the conclusion of the Spanish Civil War.
  
  During his nearly 40 years in exile he established a reputation as one of the most prolific and diverse poets of his generation.
  
  Rafael was also awarded Lenin Peace Prize for the year 1964 - after lobbying from Pablo Neruda - and Laureate Of The International Botev Prize in 1981.
  
  In 1983, he was awarded the Premio Cervantes, the Spanish literary world's highest honour. In 1998, he received the America Award for his lifetime contribution to international writing.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Returnings: Poems of Love and Distance (The Cliff Becker Book Prize in Translation)

    ( Winner of the 2016 Cliff Becker Book Prize in Translati...)

  • The Other Shore: 100 Poems (Modern Poets in Translation Series, Vol. 1) (Spanish and English Edition)

    (This edition of Rafael Alberti's work contains 100 poems ...)

  • Concerning the Angels (Spanish Edition)

    ( First published in Spain in the summer of 1929, Concern...)

  • Marinero en tierra

    (Rare book)

  • Diálogo de las Tres Solteras

Politics

During the Spanish Civil War, Alberti, like most Spanish writers, fought for the Republican cause; from 1939 to 1977 he lived in exile in Argentina.

Membership

Rafael was a member of the Generation of 27.

Connections

In Alberti, the crisis is particularly notable, given the marked contrast with the lyric zest of his earlier poetry. The difficulty of this period was offset somewhat by his marriage to María Teresa León, a novelist, in 1929. His wife passed away in 1989 and he remarried in 1990.

Wife:

María Teresa León

Daughter:

Aitana Alberti

Though he regretted his exile, he was reasonably happy during this time, mainly due to the birth of his daughter Aitana in 1941.

Friend:

Federico García Lorca

References

• De primera imagen
• Retrato de Rafael Alberti (Spanish Edition)