Maruja Mallo
Avant-garde painter and artist · 1902–1995
- Born
- 5 January 1902 · Viveiro
- Died
- 6 November 1995 · Madrid
- Period
- século XX
Maruja Mallo was one of the most distinctive creators of the Spanish avant-garde, making the body, festivity, geometry and matter fields of radical experimentation.
Ana María Gómez González, known artistically as Maruja Mallo, was born in Viveiro in 1902. Her father’s profession took the family through several cities, and her artistic training culminated at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid. There she encountered the circles that would shape the Spanish avant-garde of the 1920s.
Her first major series reveal an artist interested in urban modernity, festivity, sport and new roles for women. Later her work moved towards images of strong material and symbolic density, close to surrealism, before developing increasingly geometric and ordered structures.
The Civil War led her into American exile. She lived for years between Buenos Aires and other parts of the Americas, continuing to paint, exhibit and rebuild an international career. Her permanent return to Spain came decades later, and the critical recovery of her work ultimately placed her at the centre of avant-garde history.
Body and modernity
Active women, sport and urban life challenge traditional roles and celebrate a new female visibility.
Surrealism and matter
Debris, earth, minerals and organic forms become images of powerful symbolic intensity.
Geometry and order
Her later work seeks harmonic structures, proportion and an almost architectural visual order.
- 1902-01-05Born in Viveiro · Viveiro
- 1926Completes her studies at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts · Madrid
- 1936The outbreak of the Civil War leads to exile
- 1937Settles in Buenos Aires and begins a long American period · Bos Aires
- 1960sGradually resumes a presence in Spain
- 1995-11-06Dies in Madrid · Madrid
- Maruja Mallo · Álbum de GaliciaConsello da Cultura Galega