Maruja Mallo

Maruja Mallo (Fig.74) was an extraordinary artist of the 20th century Spanish avant-garde, best known as the “Generation of 27.” That generation comprised some of the most important artists of the time—primarily male poets, painters, and cinematographers including Federico García Lorca, Luis Buñuel, and Salvador Dalí, but also a few female artists like writer Concha Méndez and painter Margarita Manso. Although Mallo was born and spent her childhood in the Spanish northern region of Galicia, she moved to Madrid at the age of twenty to attend the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. During her studies, the majority of Mallo’s work took up social and political themes and reflected Madrid’s modernist cultural renaissance. Such is the case with her series of Verbenas [Street Fairs, 1927-1929], which she presented at her first exhibition, organized by the Revista de Occidente in 1928 (Fig. 75). From that moment on, her work began to be celebrated by critics who were equally fascinated by the originality of her dynamic and colorful artworks and by what they perceived as an unruly and original personality. Although she spent time with the male artists of her circle, as a woman, they never considered her their intellectual equal. In addition to the “Generation of 27,” Mallo established connections with the Surrealist circle of André Bretón during her stay in Paris in 1931-1932, where she also trained in stage design and exhibited her series of paintings Cloacas y Campanarios [Sewers and Bell Towers, 1930-1932]. (Fig. 76)

After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 (Fig. 77), Mallo’s ideological beliefs and the profound impact of the violence of the war led her into exile in Argentina. She settled in Buenos Aires, where she arrived in February of 1937.[1] Once there she continued her series La Religión del Trabajo [The Religion of Work, 1936-1937]  (Fig. 78) and was welcomed by a number of intellectuals that facilitated her introduction to the city’s art world.[2] With their assistance, from the first moments of her stay, she began to grant interviews and give lectures in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Moreover, she soon became an enthusiastic traveler, eager to learn more about Latin America’s geography, art, and cultures. As she only made infrequent mention of these travels to the press, not many details about these trips have been preserved. However, we do know that her most frequent destinations were Chile and Uruguay and that she visited Brazil, Bolivia,[3] and, probably, Venezuela.[4] The result of her journeys crystallized in her series Naturalezas Vivas [Living Natures] and in Cabezas de Mujer [Heads of Women].[5] In October of 1948, she exhibited in New York and, in March of 1950, in Paris. After a decade of decreased popularity and fewer public appearances in Argentina, Mallo exhibited in 1961 at the Galería Mediterránea in Madrid and made a final return to Spain in 1965.[6] Once settled in Madrid, she continued painting until the early 1980s, developing her series Los moradores del vacío [The Inhabitants of the Void, c. 1969-1975] and Viajeros del éter [Ether Travelers].[7] In 1982, the Spanish Ministry of Culture awarded her the Fine Arts Gold Medal for outstanding performance in the arts. She died in Madrid in 1995.

Figure 74. Maruja Mallo. La Verbena [The Street Fair] 1927. Oil on canvas, 119 x 165 cm. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. © Maruja Mallo

Figure 75. Maruja Mallo (left) and Josefina Carabias (right) with Mallo’s painting Antro de fósiles, from her series Cloacas y Campanarios, 1931.

Figure 76. Maruja Mallo in her studio in Madrid, surrounded by her artworks. Photo by Vicente Moreno, 1936. Archivo Moreno. Fototeca del Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España, Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte.

Figure 77. Maruja Mallo with the complete series of paintings La Religión del Trabajo [The Religion of Work] in her studio in Buenos Aires, c. 1942. Archivo Maruja Mallo.