Helios Gómez

Helios GÓMEZ (Sevilla 1905-Barcelona 1956) was un emblematic personality of Spanish graphic.

In many fields Rromani people have brought their contribution in Europe, but they are mainly known in music area. However in others arts Rroms have made an impression with interesting compositions, for example in figurative arts.Among them has shined a Spanish Rrom, Helios Gomez, who was the initiator, founder and also the first president of professional draftsmen syndicate in Spain with its residency in Barcelona.He founded it since on summer of 1936, to defend the republic through posters, politically engaged. Helios Gomez is considered as one of most emblematic representatives of Spanish graphics, on first half of 20-th century.He was a painter and a revolutionist, but also a anarchist-communist and a poet.He was born in Seville, at Triana quarter, in a real poor Rromani family with villager origin and he was proud till to death for his Rromani and Andalusian (south Spanish) origin.He took the craft firstly as a simple worker in many porcelain factory of Seville, where he ornamented different objects, at the same time following the School of Craft Arts and Trade of the city.During 1920 a1930 he created his political conscience at anarchist and revolutionary centers of Iberian peninsula: Seville and Barcelona. Later he took part in European Avant-Garde of Capitals where he lived as a refugee, especially Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, Moscow and Leningrad. During this time and especially since he was a member of National Confederation of Labor (a syndicate founded in Seville on 1910) he proceeded as a draftsman in press, appealing for justice and being expressed without fear against Primo De Riviera dictatorship and later against Francisco Franco. This was the essentiality of his commitment.Firstly he was appreciated for his political avant-gardist designs, black and white but he worked, exposed and published his pieces in Madrid and Catalonia, when he was dislodged from Andalusia on 1926. From Barcelona he was deported by policy authorities and he asked for lodgment firstly in France and then in Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and in the Soviet Union, when he met many Rroms from his country.He fought on the fronts of art and military fight, during the Civil War in Spain, being a political commissar in Mallorca, Madrid and then in Andujar. He was consigned to the responsibility of culture at 26-th Division, Durruti column, and according to some witnesses he got together a battalion of Rroms to protect the republic against Franco dictatorship.In 1939 he was constrained to go to France and also 500.000 warriors of freedom from Spain. This massive migration is known in history as “Retirada”. French authorities enclosed them in some concentration-camps and then they were deported to Algeria, at that time was part of France, at Gelpfa camp. He escaped from camp tortures on May 1942 and he managed to get a passage to Spain when he restarted in illegal to fight against Franco. He got arrested on 1946 and he was thrown into Barcelona jail without a trial or conviction, when he remained for 8 years. Although the decision for discharge was assigned on 1950 he could loosen only on 1954. He died on 1956.On 1950 he painted in jail some frescos to honor prisoners and Maria Saint, who is at the same time their spiritual protector and of the city. Most known is La Verge de la Mercé (Virgin of mercy) that can be admired until today in a cell close to the one of the prisoners sentenced to death penalty. This cell was transformed to saint place and was named Capilla gitana, because of Rromani inspiration of all characters, described to fresco. Unfortunately this fresco was partly covered by dye on ’70-’80, under the cover of hygiene, but in reality was the reason that this fresco got in the way of prison authorities. It can be restored but recently the city of Barcelona decided to destroy this historical jail, although it is a symbol of the Franco repression and it was registered to architectural fond of the country. Its destruction will bear the downfall of it that was discovered only on 2004.Helios Gomez has created this Capilla gitana under Franco’s dictatorship and censorship, alone in his cell, against reticence and deceit, but during that time he has written also some verses: Credo del sur – sonetos y romances (Credo From the South – Sonnets and Romances, 1946), Erika – canto de amor y lucha (Erika – Songs of Love and Combat, 1946), Poemas (Poem, 1947-1950), Poemas sueltos (Poem on the Prowl), Otros poemas (Other Poems ) etc. The Cultural Association Helios Gómez, with its residency in Barcelona, does everything to protect and make known widely this outstanding heritage of the Rromani artist, draftsman and poet, but there are difficulties from authorities who, under the cover of various justifications, deny the values of this activity, however admired world-wide. Its site www.heliosgomez.org facilitates an extremely interesting iconography.

Bibliography :

Helios Gómez, poemas de lucha y sueño, 1942-1956, ACHG, Barcelona, 2006Helios Gómez, Visca Octubre, Museu de Granollers, ACHG, Museu d'Història de Catalunya, CarCob (Bruselas), Granollers, 2005IVAM Centre Julio González: HELIOS GÓMEZ 1905-1956, Generalitat Valenciana, Valencia, 1998Ursula Tjaden: Helios Gómez Artista de Corbata Roja, Txalaparta, Tafalla, 1996. Carles Fontseré: Memòries d'un cartelista, Portic, Barcelona,1995.Ursula Tjaden: Die Hülle zerfetzen Helios Gómez 1905-1956 Andalusier Künstler Kämpfer, Elefanten Press Verlag GmbH, Berlín, 1986.Juan Manuel Bonet: Art Contra la Guerra, Ajuntament de Barcelona, Barcelona, 1986