415. La Montserrat - Julio González - 1935 - Stedelijk Museum

La Montserrat greeted visitors to the Spanish Republican Pavilion of 1937’s Exhibition Nationale, Paris. While on its face a modernist sculpture proclaiming worker-class and modernist values, it’s also a religious allusion. Montserrat is not only a common name for Christian women, it is a holy mountain site in Spain, famed for its church and black Madonna. There’s an obvious connection between Gonzalez’s subject and medium and the black Madonna image. It updates the religious icon and recreates it as a worshipful icon of secular republicanism.