Maruja Mallo. The Bohemian Incarnate

Abstract

The youth of the so-called “Generation of 27" practiced a form of mystical bohemianism which they inherited above all from the first avant-garde artists who resided in Paris at the turn of the 20th century. This is the case of, among them, the woman who contributed the most to the Spanish avant-garde movement, the eccentric and chameleonic Maruja Mallo. Like the quintessential bohemian, she lived her life as if she herself were a work of art. Mallo “infiltrated” the intellectual world, ignoring the social mores for women. Her most surrealist works, her photographs and her paintings from the “Cesspools and Belfries” series, brilliantly reveal her innovative talents. Because of her daring and her scandalous life, Mallo was boycotted during her long exile, but in the post-Franco period, she was rescued from oblivion and is now recognized as one of the essential figures of the historical avant-garde in Spain.