from young bourgeoisie to pioneer of feminist art in Guatemala

The artist Margarida Azurdia (Guatemala, 1931-1998) signed her pieces with several heteronyms: Margot Fanjul (married name), Una Soledad, Margarita Rita Rica Dinamita, Anastasia Margarita... with whom she also became known in the different artistic contexts where she lived: Canada (1944 -1955), California (1957-1963), Paris (1974-1982) and the outskirts of Guatemala, where he always returned.

Another factor that, together with the successive diversity of proposals in his production and the difficulties in reconstructing some periods, perhaps explains the neglect of his work until recently.

Belonging to the upper class, Guatemalan father and Catalan motherwas a cosmopolitan artist, who exhibited in New York, Mexico, Colombia and at the XII Bienal de São Paulo, where she exhibited paintings, sculptures and installations.

The artist subverts Guatemalan religious imagery transmuted into a naive pop style

Despite his self-taught background, polemicized with wit in newspapers about his artistic stance in favor of abstraction with politically engaged figurative artists in a convulsed Guatemala, with autocratic and military governments until 1985; published a dozen books with drawings, collages and poems; and, in her country, she was a pioneer in performative practices.

In this exhibition, the largest held in Europe, we can cover more than three decades of his career. A race in which, according to curator Rossina Cazali, who knew Margarita and other of her contemporaries, we would watch from initial abstraction to a path of inner search and spirituality, with echoes of theologian Teilhard de Chardin. This would link Azurdia to other mystical artists, whose genealogy was established in the recent exhibition abstraction women which we were able to see at the Guggenheim in Bilbao.

[Artists rewrite the history of museums]

Fashion history now, but not so evident here to visitors, who prefer to be left with the impression of an artist always experimental in which, from her attraction to indigenous Guatemalan crafts made by women, she gradually leaned towards the feminism of mother goddess symbolism and the “matriarchal” cults in which other artists would work simultaneously, from the famous The dinner made by the American artist Judy Chicago between 1973 and 1979, to others who cannot be classified, such as Mary Beth Edelson, Mónica Sjöö, Louise Bourgeois, the artist of Cuban origin Ana Mendieta and the Chicana Amalia Mesa-Bains.

The beginning is spectacular, with the series geometric: fabrics op art monumental paintings with diamonds of intense and contrasting color, created in the late 60s and early 70s and inspired, as the critic Marta Traba already attested in her time, in the designs and colors of indigenous textiles, which she already collected when She was a young bourgeoisie with three children, before going to California and dedicating herself to the arts.

It is a shame that almost all of the first oval motif canvases made there have been lost. As well as the mobile sculptures in white marble, of which only a beautiful example is presented in this exhibition.

In Paris, she began her training in performing arts, essential for her role as a pioneer of performance art.

And in my opinion, even during this period, it is a shame that no attempt was made to update the environmental space Please take off your shoes1970, presented at the II Medellín Biennial and where you were invited to enter a dimly lit cube with a clay floor.

The definitive turning point came in the mid-seventies, with the no less remarkable series Tribute to Guatemalawith pieces that subvert the Guatemalan religious imaginary transmuted into naive pop and where they already appear personifications of empowered women.

Afterwards, the exhibition is diluted a little with the excessive sample of papers from the Parisian period: a true biographical archeology, with which we would arrive at the dissection of the intimateif it weren't for its limited plastic interest.

But in Paris, in addition to her relationship with feminists, Azurdia would begin her training in dance and performing arts, fundamental to her role as a pioneer in performative practices in Guatemala.

Some last altar cabinets reinforce its feminist and environmental convictions surrounding the divinity of the femininewith photos where we see her dancing with other women outdoors.

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