Exhibitions
The Reina Sofía Museum hosts Maruja Mallo's major retrospective: "Mask and Compass."
Maruja Mallo. Mask and Compass . The artist from Viveiro was one of the great artists of the 20th century in Spain and a key figure of the Generation of '27, alongside names such as Rafael Alberti, Salvador Dalí, Federico García Lorca, María Zambrano, Luis Buñuel and Rosa Chacel, among others. Furthermore, she established herself as the main representative of a group of creators who, for the first time, offered a vision of the world from a unique female perspective: that of the modern, active, free and professional woman.
Recently, the Centro Botín in Santander hosted the retrospective "Maruja Mallo: Mask and Compass," currently on view at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), the institution that also co-produced the exhibition. The selection brings together paintings and drawings produced between 1924 and 1982, offering a comprehensive overview of the career of one of the most unique figures of the Spanish avant-garde. Considered the most important exhibition dedicated to Maruja Mallo to date, the presentation at the Reina Sofía expands the number of works on display thanks to the increased capacity of its galleries.
The exhibition, which opened on October 8 and will be on view until March 16, 2026, is curated by Patricia Molins of the Temporary Exhibitions Department of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS). It brings together nearly 100 works that provide a comprehensive overview of the artist's artistic evolution. Through this comprehensive collection, the public can appreciate a journey that spans from her early works linked to magical realism, where her particular sensitivity and technical mastery are already evident, to the compositions of her later years, characterized by geometric and illusory figuration that reflect the maturity of her visual language and her constant search for new forms of expression.
Maruja Mallo's artistic output, as personal as it is diverse, blurs the lines between the popular and the avant-garde, between aesthetics and political impulses. In her work, the popular ceases to be a nostalgic evocation of the rural world and becomes a fertile ground for encounter and fusion, profoundly contemporary and urban.
During his exile in Argentina following the Spanish Civil War, Mallo poured his fascination with the beauty and exuberance of the new continent into his paintings, capturing its vitality and mystery. In these compositions, the human figure emerges monumentally, transformed into an emblem and reflection; while the mask and shadow, as symbolic alter egos, evoke the duality between identity and metamorphosis that permeates all of his work.
The exhibition is organized chronologically, focusing on Maruja Mallo's various painting series. These series—along with her drawings and archival material—reconstruct the complete evolution of her artistic career: from the magical realism and surrealist compositions of her early work to the geometric structures and fantastical visions that characterize her later period. In this journey, Mallo's settings range from Madrid's working-class neighborhoods to the landscapes of the outskirts, delving into the relationship between humankind and nature, a relationship the artist elevates to a level where science, art, and mythology harmoniously converge.
