The First World War forced several figures of avant-garde art to move to Barcelona. Among them was Albert Gleizes who presented his first solo exhibition at Galeries Dalmau.

One of the motifs he focused on was popular Spanish culture, particularly Flamenco dance which Gleizes addressed from a Cubist perspective. The artist decomposed the figure of the bailaora in a series of planes and geometric shapes made up of lively and contrasting colors; the figure is fused with the dress, with the elements, and with the stage lighting.

The armed conflict signified a fracture in avant-garde art: while the Dadaist group in Paris radicalized its nihilist and groundbreaking discourse, Gleizes’ style evolved toward austerity, geometry, rational order, and classicism.