Maruja Mallo: Photography and Self-fashioning in the Spanish Avant-Garde

Abstract

In this article we argue that the Spanish artist Maruja Mallo used deliberatively the photographic portrait as part of a performative work of reinventing the self. The photography was a vehicle of self-affirmation, as well as a tool to build an image of the self that was beyond the then-established female roles. In addition to that, photographic portrait gave Mallo the opportunity to "embody" her work, to represent in a living way, creating a symbiosis between creature and creator and to the limit of the vanguard ideal of fusion between art and life.