Victorina Durán and Maruja Mallo: encounters and misunderstandings of two exiled artists

Abstract

Born with a few years of difference, Victorina Durán and Maruja Mallo studied at the Escuela Especial de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado, frequented the modern Madrid circles, were teachers at the Residencia de Señoritas and cultivated the visual arts and scenography. After the outbreak of the Civil War, they both went into exile in Argentina and worked for Margarita Xirgu, participated in the Bienales Hispanoamericanas de Arte and exhibited their works at the Galerie Silvagni in Paris. In Argentina, they both actively lived and worked throughout more than two decades before returning to Madrid. Nevertheless, although Mallo was recuperated by the Movida madrileña as a mythicized icon of the prewar culture, Durán continued working in the background. This paper is focused on the analysis of the common points in their educational and professional trajectories. Moreover, it seeks to explain why both artists never worked together and barely mentioned each other in their respective writings.