Abstract
Before the Spanish Civil War and the rise of Francoism, women artists in Madrid were prominent members of Spanish artistic and intellectual circles. One such group is the Generación del 27, a vibrant avant-garde coterie of Spanish artists and poets that claimed renowned figures like Salvador Dali, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Rafael Alberti as members, along with the female artists Maruja Mallo and Margarita Manso. I investigate the network of artistic inspiration in this time period, and shed light on the censoring of the “Sinsombrero” group of pre-Civil War female artists during the Franco era. Two dynamics have contributed to our failure to adequately recognize the contributions and significance of these women artists: Spain’s Pact of Forgetting in the wake of the Franco dictatorship, and the entrenched hierarchy of narratives in museums, which tends to favor a history told by and about a handful of celebrated artists, typically male. Nevertheless, correspondence between Lorca, Dali, Mallo, and Manso reveal the inherent connection and inspiration behind each other’s artworks. My research proposes a curatorial strategy that compares these works, and in turn, elevates “Sinsombrero” narratives within the context of Generación del 27’s established fame.
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
2026 Special Focus—The Future of Museum Narratives
KEYWORDS
Curation, Women Artists, Sinsombrero, Generacion 27, Spanish Civil War
