This artwork is titled ‘Industrial Assembly at the Shipyard’ and was painted by Agustín Ibarrola (1930-2023) in around 1965. This is, I think, a political painting which shows a scene of a mass of workers gathered beside a shipyard, with cranes towering above them and a ship emerging through the smoke and shadow. It is not a gentle maritime scene of ropes, sails and someone looking wistfully out to sea. This is heavier than that, it’s a statement about workers and their importance to the economy. It was also one of my favourite paintings in the galleries, it felt like it had a meaning that I could understand which is always handy in an art gallery.
I’m mentioning this political angle as the artist seems something of a character. He was a committed anti-Franco activist and member of the Communist Party who was arrested in 1962, tried by a military court and was imprisoned for several years at Burgos jail. His art was closely bound up with workers’ struggles, repression and resistance to the dictatorship, which helps explain why ‘Industrial Assembly at the Shipyard’ feels less like a decorative dockside scene and more like a political statement with cranes.
Later in life, his politics shifted towards outspoken opposition to ETA and support for civic anti-terrorist movements, so his career was marked by a long and rather costly commitment to political liberty, expressed through paint and evidently a notable refusal to keep quiet. ETA might have ceased their campaign of terror, but anyone prepared to stand up to them at the time was certainly brave.