Continuing to Research and the Challenges of not Living in Spain

As I mentioned in our last class before break, I reached out to my art history professor from Spain, asking him if he knew of any resources I can look over in relation to my working thesis topic (which is how art made during the Spanish Civil War influenced the Reina Sofia's collection and how the museum used the collection to tell the story of the civil war). He was generous enough, not only to respond super quickly but with a large amount of resources, which was great initially, but I soon found it a challenge to find any of the articles/journals he references online. I followed up with him over break, asking if any of the sources were available online, and unfortunately he said that none of them were digitized, and I would have to contact the institutions and ask if they could do it for me and send over copies. So that threw a wrench in my plans, here I was thinking I had so many great resources but most of them I need to be in Spain to access. 😓 

I can't let that stop me however, so I am trying to see if the topics have been written about in English, in databases that I can access, and also going through the sources and seeing which ones I am most interested in so I can send some emails to the Spanish institutions in hopes that they will help me out. In the mean time, my intern library loan came in last week so I am excited to start reading that and see if it will lead me to any new sources. I also read the article my professor in Spain wrote when he worked at the Reina Sofia, and to my surprise it was a very critical article on how modern and contemporary art museums do a disservice to visitors by not providing proper historical contexts with their works. His main focus was the second floor permanent exhibit surrounding Guernica in the Reina Sofia, and how the museum does not properly explain the history of the The Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (Paris 1937) which Guernica was made for and first displayed at. It really has me rethinking my experience in that museum and how it would have meant so little if I did not already have a general understanding of the history and the artist.