03 August, 2017 - 03 September, 2017
Palacete del Embarcadero, Santander
Curated: Archivo Lafuente

The exhibition "Diego Lara and Revista Poesía" not only shows the output of Diego Lara (Madrid, 1946–1990) as a graphic designer between 1970 and 1990, but also original examples of his work as an illustrator and draftsman through a significant number of notebooks, artist books, sketches, collages, drawings and maquettes. These works, more often than not, form part of his graphic illustration process.

Whilst studying history at the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature of Complutense University—studies he never finished—Lara began to get involved in industrial design projects whilst taking part in painting workshops and young painters’ exhibitions. Nevertheless, it wasn’t long before he began to take an interest in publishing and graphic design. In 1972 he founded, together with Mauricio d’Ors, the publishing house La Fontana Literaria, where he was responsible for the graphic line. The following year, also with D’Ors and the writer Juan Antonio Molina Foix, he founded Nostromo, where he was able to develop new and personal ideas in the field of graphic design. At that precise moment, Diego Lara began to delve further into the field, which manifested in many different works within a very short period of time from 1974 to 1988. Among them, he designed book covers for publishing houses such as Trece de Nieve, Siglo XXI, Fundamentos, Cátedra and Turner, and was also the head of graphics for the publications of Fundación March from 1974 to 1982. In addition, from 1979 to 1981 he managed, together with Gonzalo Armero, the magazine Poesía (published by the Spanish Ministry of Culture). This publication was a turning point in the field of cultural publications in Spain at the time.

The magazine Poesía. Revista ilustrada de información poética began in 1978 published by Editora Nacional, an imprint from the newly-formed Spanish Ministry of Culture. The magazine was run by Gonzalo Armero (Madrid, 1947–2006) from the very first issue, with Diego Lara as graphic director and deputy director until issue 16.

Understood in the context of Spanish periodicals of the time, Poesía was an innovative and high-quality project, both in terms of its content, design and graphic approach, presenting a variety of subject matter (painting, poetry, writing, essays, photography, architecture, music and cinema, among others) and introducing new readers from the transition to democracy to contemporary and avant-garde ways of producing a publication from a material and typographic point of view.

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