Part 2: Painting for Equality

INTRODUCTION

Observing the Heads of Women series we immediately realize that these paintings, apart from transmitting a sense of geometrical perfection, stand out for creating a sort of pictorial catalog of racial diversity. For all Mallo’s efforts to create a timeless, ideal beauty, the series is equally vested in diverse complexions and the celebration of different types of female and ethnic beauty. Exploring the Heads series from the perspective of race will enrich them and allow for a broader understanding of racial representation in the arts of the Hispanic world.

When Mallo returned to Spain after twenty-five years in exile in South America, she commented on how impressed she was by all the novelties that she saw in the region, especially new landscapes and populations with which she was previously unfamiliar. For example, in a lecture delivered in 1981, she declared that in South America “magically appeared in front of [her] the exotic races.”[1] Although mainstream Latin American culture saw itself as predominantly white, Mallo appreciated its racial and ethnic diversity, which was the focus of multiple debates throughout the twentieth century in Latin American nations that emerged as post-colonial states. Until the end of the 20th century, the prevailing ideology of mestizaje (mixture of races and cultures) tried to conceal the prevailing relationships based on the subordination of Indigenous and Black communities to a single language (Spanish or Portuguese) and a single culture. However, Indigenous and Black peoples continued fighting for their rights, forcing the states to reconsider their discriminatory discourses.[2] Aware of the discrimination experienced by these communities, Mallo felt the necessity of responding to it by means of her very personal pictorial language.

Figure 46. Polynesia (profile) 1951. Unknown technique, 55 x 43 cm. © Maruja Mallo