Josefina Plá Guerra Galvany

Josefina Plá Guerra Galvany (Isla de Lobos, Fuerteventura, 1903 - Asunción, Paraguay, 1999)

Josefina Plá is a multifaceted figure who is hard to pin down. She was a writer, poet, journalist, playwright and artist. The daughter of a lighthouse keeper on the small island of Lobos, off Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands, she was a key figure in art, culture and feminism in Paraguay. The connection with the South-American country came about after marrying the artist Andrés Campos Cervera (1888-1937), better known under the alias of Julián de la Herrería. They met in Spain where Campos Cervera had travelled in order to gain a better understanding of ceramic techniques.

The couple also formed an artistic partnership, with Plá increasingly recognized as the conceptual force behind Campos Cervera’s work, advising her husband on the pre-Columbian images, myths and cultures depicted in both of their ceramic creations.

The couple’s relationship with the National Museum of Ceramics and Decorative Arts can be traced back to when Manuel González Martí was the director of the Manises School of Ceramics. As González Martí recalled, he met Campos Cervera in 1925, when the latter “showed up at his doorstep” [1] asking for permission to attend classes at the school, which Plá must also have attended. [2] There they learned ceramic techniques like cuerda seca (dry cord) and metallic lustre. During his time in Valencia, Campos Cervera produced a large number of ceramic pieces, until he died in 1937 from coronary problems [3] during the Spanish Civil War.

According to Manuel González Martí [4], Campos Cervera’s work was stored away in “barrels filled with rice straw” at the Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia. Once the war was over, González Martí was appointed director of the museum and as he remembered: “I discovered the barrels and took good care of them because the address painted on them told me who they belonged to.” When the National Museum of Ceramics and Decorative Arts was founded in 1947 and then later moved to its current location in the Palace of the Marquis de Dos Aguas, these pieces were also taken in the move. Josefina Plá spent twenty years following her husband’s death trying to take her husband’s work to Paraguay with the purpose of setting up a museum dedicated to the artist. [5] Finally, in 1956 and with the help of González Martí, among others, Plá managed to export the works to Paraguay. As a sign of her gratitude, according to González Martí “she let us choose an incredible group of plates and other decorated objects” by Campos Cervera which she donated to the museum in 1956.

As a result, Plá was in Valencia between 1956 and 1957 to organize the shipping of Campos Cervera’s pieces. During her stay, she made the most of her time by continuing advancing her study of ceramics. On her trip to Valencia she was accompanied by her student and fellow artist José Laterza Parodi with whom she co-founded the Arte Nuevo group in 1954, along with other members. [6] They studied ceramics in Manises for a few months between 1956 and 1957.

Of the four ceramic works representing Josefina Plá’s donation in this exhibition, three are pieces made by Andrés Campos Cervera (inv. nos.: CE1/02799, CE1/02803, CE1/02805) and the fourth (inv. no. CE1/09271) is an example of Josefina Plá’s own work as a ceramic artist.

In the Relación de los donativos recibidos en el “Museo Nacional de Cerámica González Martí” durante el año 1955 [7] (List of donations received by González Martí National Museum of Ceramics in 1955, hereinafter Book of Donations), in the entry for 1956, González Martí describes the first group in entry 47 as “a set of ceramics painted by Andrés Campos Cervera, donated by his widow Josefina Plá Guerra.” These include a bust of a woman made in 1930 (inv. no. CE1/02805) called Ceibo Poty. We also have a small vase decorated with what Campos Cervera called (according to the inscription on the back of the piece) “Calchaquí patterns (dragon)”, made in 1937. Finally, a plate (inv. no. CE1/02799) made in 1935 with “Inca patterns” depicting the scene of a chief carried on a litter by two servants.

The last piece (inv. no. CE1/09271) is described in the Book of Donations as “of Paraguayan style,”[8] though some scholars believe that the patterns may be Malayan, because of the tattoos on the bodies of the women depicted.[9] This piece is not part of the group of works made by Campos Cervera and donated by Josefina Plá in 1956. We believe that it was one of the two pieces donated by Josefina Plá in 1957, according to an entry in the Book of Donations “donated by their author Josefina Plá”. It depicts three identical squatting female figures with tattoos on their faces and bodies. The plate is painted and glazed. It was more than likely made during the time she studied ceramics in Manises between 1956 and 1957 together with Laterza Parodi. It is possible that it was made jointly by the two, as it is signed “PP” on the back, which we believe stands for “Plá, Parodi”.

Caption: Josefina at home in Manises. Silver gelatin print, ca. 1935. AECID (inv. no. 5421) Posing with ceramics hanging on the wall over Para’í ponchos

[1] GONZÁLEZ MARTÍ, Manuel; “En la sala de artistas extranjeros del Museo Nacional de Cerámica. Andrés Campor Cervera el “paraguayo”,” in Levante. Valencia supplement, 30 October 1959.

[2] Unfortunately, the archive of the Manises School of Ceramics has been lost and there are no records of the students.

[3] MORENO ROYO, José María, official chronicler of Manises. “Andrés Campos Cervera, el paraguayo que vino a morir a Manises.” Las Provincias, Friday 23 October 1987, p. 44.

[4] GONZÁLEZ MARTÍ, Manuel; op. cit.

[5] She achieved her goal in 1959. BLANCO CONDE, María “La cerámica de Josefina Plá. Apuntes sobre el catálogo de su obra plástica,” 5-2-2024, extract from catalogue raisonné, La obra cerámica de Josefina Plá en el Museo colección Julián de la Herreria, forthcoming. https://reinamares.hypotheses.org/51474

[6] BLANCO CONDE, María, Op cit.

[7] From 1955 onward, Manuel González Martí began to record by hand in a book the works donated to or acquired by the museum, with the year and the person who donated or sold each piece. GONZÁLEZ MARTÍ, Manuel. Relación de los donativos recibidos en el “Museo Nacional de Cerámica González Martí” durante el año 1955. Valencia, 1955-1971, (MS), entry 47, 1956.

[8] GONZÁLEZ MARTÍ, Manuel. Relación de los donativos recibidos en el “Museo Nacional de Cerámica González Martí” durante el año 1955. Valencia, 1955-1971, (MS) entry 82 of 1097.

[9] I wish to thank Josep Pérez Camps for his observations on this piece.

Asun González Pérez