Maruja Mallo facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Maruja Mallo
Born	Ana María Gómez González Viveiro, Spain
Died	6 February 1995(1995-02-06) (aged 93) Madrid, Spain
Education	School of Arts and Crafts of Avilés (before 1922) Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando (since 1922) Free Academy of Art (since 1922)
Known for	Painting
Movement	Spanish avant-garde Surrealism
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Maruja Mallo (born Ana María Gómez González; 5 January 1902 – 6 February 1995) was a famous Spanish painter. She was known for her unique surrealism style. Maruja is considered an important artist from the Generation of 1927. This group was part of the Spanish avant-garde movement.

About Maruja Mallo's Life

Maruja Mallo was born in Viveiro, Spain, on 5 January 1902. She was the fourth of fourteen children. Her father, Justo Gómez Mallo, was a customs official. Her mother was María del Pilar González Lorenzo. Maruja was the older sister of the sculptor Cristino Mallo. He was born in Tui in 1905.

Her Early Years and Art Journey

When Maruja was young, she often lived with her parents or her aunt and uncle. Living with her aunt and uncle inspired her to create art. Her family moved to Avilés in 1913. They lived there until 1922.

In 1922, when Maruja was 20, her family moved to Madrid. She began studying at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts. She stayed there until 1926. In Madrid, she met many famous artists, writers, and scientists. These included Salvador Dalí, Federico García Lorca, and Luis Buñuel. They were all part of the Spanish Generation ’27.

Maruja Mallo became good friends with Concha Méndez and Josefina Canarias. They formed a group of women artists called “Las Sinsombrero.” This means “those without hats” in English.

During the 1920s, Maruja also worked on many books and magazines. In 1928, a writer named Ortega y Gasset noticed her paintings. He helped her have her first art show. It was held in Revista de Occidente and was very successful. People loved her original and fresh artwork. The show featured ten oil paintings. They showed sunny towns, bullfighters, and women from Madrid. It also had colorful prints of machines, sports, and early cinema. This exhibit helped Maruja be judged for her art, not her gender. Her paintings from this time were often called "magic realism."

Maruja Mallo's art was very important for the Spanish avant-garde movement. Her paintings from the 1920s showed city life and sports. They used bright colors and complex designs. This showed the energy of modern life. An example is La Verbena (The Festival) from 1927.

Artistic Growth in the 1930s

In the early 1930s, Maruja Mallo's art became more surrealistic. She used geometric shapes and themes from nature. She also made ceramic plates with designs of fish and bulls. From 1931, she worked closely with Rafael Alberti. During these years, she painted the series Cloacas (Sewers) and Campanarios (Belfries).

Her first art show in Paris was in 1932 at the Pierre Loeb Gallery. This is where her surrealist period truly began.

She returned to Madrid in 1933. She became very active in the Society of Iberian Artists. This was a time when Maruja became interested in geometric patterns and nature's details.

In the same year, Maruja Mallo supported the Second Spanish Republic. She started teaching drawing at several schools. These included the Institute of Arévalo and the Ceramics School of Madrid. She even designed dishes for the Ceramics School. There, she learned about math and geometry for ceramics.

She spent a lot of time with Miguel Hernández and they had a romantic relationship. They also planned a play together called Los hijos de la piedra (The sons and the stone). It was inspired by events in Casas Viejas. By 1936, she began a new "constructive" art style. She still showed her work with surrealist painters in London and Barcelona. She also taught in the Pedagogical Missions. This brought her closer to her home region, Galicia. Soon after, the Spanish Civil War began.

In May 1936, her third solo exhibit took place in Madrid. It featured sixteen paintings from Cloacas y Campanarios. It also showed twelve works from Arquitecturas minerales y vegetales (Mineral and vegetable architectures). There were also sixteen drawings from Instrucciones rurales (Rural instructions). Later, she had an exhibit with Ángel Planells in London.

Life in Exile During the Spanish Civil War

When the Spanish Civil War started in 1936, Maruja Mallo went to Portugal. Sadly, all her ceramic art from this time was destroyed in the war. Later, Gabriela Mistral, who was Chile's ambassador in Portugal, helped Maruja move to Buenos Aires. There, she was invited to give talks about Spanish art. She spoke in Montevideo and Buenos Aires.

When Maruja Mallo went into exile, some male artists tried to ignore her work. She was often left out of Spanish art history books. People sometimes remembered her for her personal life more than her art. She was even called a "Mascot" or "Muse" of the Generation of 27.

In Argentina, Maruja quickly gained recognition. She worked with the avant-garde magazine Sur. The writer Borges also contributed to this magazine. This was a time when Maruja traveled a lot. She lived between Uruguay and Buenos Aires. She designed, painted, and created new art. She also had exhibits in Paris, Brazil, and New York City. Her early work in Argentina continued her style from Sorpresa del trigo (Wheat surprise). Examples include Arquitectura humana (Human Architecture) and Mensaje del mar (Message from the Sea). In her series Las Máscaras (The Masks), Maruja was inspired by American cultures.

She met her friend Alfonso Reyes again, who was Mexico's ambassador in Argentina. They stayed in touch until 1938. That year, she returned to Mexico. On 2 August 1938, Federico García Lorca’s Cantata en la tumba (Cantata in the tomb) premiered. Maruja Mallo designed the scenography (stage design) for it.

In 1939, she traveled to Santiago, Chile. She was invited to give several talks there. The Museum of Drawing and Illustration in Buenos Aires now has two of Maruja’s tempera paintings on paper. They show half-real, half-imaginary animals.

At 36, she published a book called Lo popular en la plástica española a través de mi obra (What is popular in Spanish art because of my work) (1939). She also started painting portraits of women. Her style in these paintings was similar to pop art, which became popular later in the United States.

In 1942, a book about her, Maruja Mallo, was published. Between 1945 and 1957, Maruja had a quieter period. She appeared in public and had fewer exhibits. In 1945, she went to Chile. She traveled to Viña del Mar and Easter Island with Pablo Neruda. She was looking for ideas for a mural for a theater in Los Angeles.

On 11 October 1948, Maruja left Argentina and moved to New York. In March 1950, she exhibited in Paris. In 1959, she exhibited in Buenos Aires. Finally, she traveled from New York to Madrid. She returned to Spain in 1962, after 25 years of exile.

Return to Spain and Later Years

In October 1962, Maruja Mallo had an exhibit in the Mediterranean gallery in Madrid. In the 1980s, she painted many amazing works in her geometric style. These included Acróbatas (Acrobats) and Protozoarios (Protozoa).

For a long time, Maruja Mallo was not often mentioned in Spanish art history books. Instead of being recognized for her art, people remembered less important things. However, the respect her work received in Argentina eventually came to Spain. She was even asked to speak about her own art. People say that "Mallo would shock her time with her avant-garde art. She would upset them because she refused to follow the rules that society tried to put on women."

Maruja Mallo died in Madrid on 6 February 1995, at 93 years old.

Maruja Mallo's Art and Influence

Maruja Mallo's early memories of street fairs influenced her first major series of paintings, Las Verbenas. The changing world around her also inspired her art. She created a new way to show the female body. Her goal was to show women as active people in society, not just objects. Maruja also used gender ideas in her paintings. She painted figures that looked both male and female. She also painted large, mythical women. This showed her freedom from the male-dominated art world in Madrid.

Awards and Recognition

In 1979, Maruja Mallo began a new painting style with Los moradores del vacio (The dwellers of the void). She was 77 years old, but still had great energy. In the 1980s, she received many exhibits and awards:

• She received the Gold Medal for honor in the Fine Arts in 1982.
• She won the Award for Plastic Arts in Madrid in 1982.
• In 1990, she received the Gold Medal for Community in Madrid.
• In 1991, she received the Galician Medal.
• In 1992, at 90 years old, an exhibit of her work was held in Madrid. It showed paintings from her time in America for the first time.
• In 1993, a large exhibit of her work was held in Santiago de Compostela. It later moved to the Buenos Aires Fine Arts Museum.
• In 2010, an exhibit of her work was organized in Vigo.
• In 2018, Maruja Mallo's work was shown in New York for the first time since 1948. The exhibit was called "Maruja Mallo: Paintings 1926-1952."
• You can find Maruja Mallo's artwork at the Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia. This is Spain's national museum of 20th-century art.

Legacy of Maruja Mallo

In Viveiro, Maruja Mallo's hometown, a museum was created to study her work. Also, a street in Madrid was named after her. Streets named after Maruja Mallo can also be found in other cities. These include Almería, Estepona, Mérida, Boadilla del Monte, Guadalajara, and San Juan.

In 2017, the Gallegas Day of the Arts was dedicated to Maruja Mallo. This was given by the Royal Gallegan Academy of Fine Arts.

Key Artworks

• La verbena (The Fair) (1927)
• La kermesse (The Fair) (1928)
• Canto de las espigas (Song of the ears) (1929)
• La huella (The footprint) (1929)
• Antro de Fosiles (Fossil Club) (1930)
• Sorpresa en el trigo (Wheat surprise) (1936)
• Figuras (Figures) (1937)
• Cabeza de mujer (Woman’s head) (1941)
• Máscaras (Masks) (1942)
• Serie Las naturalezas vivas (Natural life series) (1942)
• El racimo de uvas (The cluster of grapes) (1944)
• Oro (Gold) (1951)
• Agol (1969)
• Geonauta (Geonaut) (1975)
• Selvatro (Jungle) (1979)
• Concorde (Concord) (1979)
• Máscara tres-veinte (Mask three-twenty) (1979)
• Airagu (1979)
• Acróbatas macro y microcosmos (Macro and microcosm acrobats) (1981)
• Acróbatas (Acrobats) (1981)
• Protozaorios (Protozoa) (1981)
• Panteo (Pantheon) (1982)
• Acróbata (Acrobat) (1982)
• Protoesquema (Protoschema) (1982)
• Razas (Races) (1982)
• Viajeros del éter (Aether Travelers) (1982)

See also

In Spanish: Maruja Mallo para niños