The exhibition
MARUJA MALLO: MÁSCARA Y COMPÁS. Paintings and drawings from 1924 to 1982
12 April - 14 September 2025
This ambitious retrospective presents around 100 paintings and drawings, together with writings and photographs by the artist that chart her entire career: from the new realism of her early days to the geometric and fantastic configurations of her final works. The exhibition title Máscara y Compás evokes ideas of theatre, carnival and performance through the word ‘máscara’ (mask), whilst ‘compás’ has a dual meaning in Spanish, referring to both a scientific compass as well as ‘beat’ or ‘rhythm’.
The show will emphasise how the popular, the performative and the telluric permeated the artist’s initial work, highlighting her ties with the theatre. The exhibition will trace the changes in her work due to the Spanish Civil War and her exile in Buenos Aires, where her portraits and still lifes metaphorically translate the impact of the environment and the culture of her adopted home. Lesser-known conceptual aspects of her late cosmic series will be made evident through her previously unpublished archival holdings, recently acquired by the Museo Reina Sofía as part of the museums acquisition of the Santander-based Archivo Lafuente.
The exhibition is co-organised by Fundación Botín and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, where the exhibition will take place from the 7 October, 2025 until 16 March, 2026.
Curator: Patricia Molins
Maruja Mallo (Viveiro, Galicia, 1902 – Madrid, 1995) was a leading artist of Spanish Avant-Garda and Surrealism, as well as one of the central figures of the ‘Generation of ’27’, an important group of artists and writers based in Madrid, which included Rafael Alberti, Salvador Dalí, Federico Garcia Lorca and Luis Buñuel. Her vibrant and diverse artistic output blurred the boundaries between the popular and the avant-garde, between aesthetics and politics, ultimately presenting a feminine worldview from the unprecedented perspective of the modern woman.
