JULIA MINGUILLÓN (Lugo, 1907 - Madrid, 1965). Untitled. Oil... Lot 10

JULIA MINGUILLÓN (Lugo, 1907 - Madrid, 1965). Untitled. Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower left corner. Size: 70 x 50 cm; 84 x 63 cm (frame). Minguillón's work achieved great fame, being his scenes of infants the most popular ones. For this reason this piece stands out for the singularity of the subject matter in which two women can be seen; one fully dressed facing the viewer and the other with her back to the viewer naked. We only see the face of one of the protagonists, in such a way that the author suggests a game of identity that does not speak of specific characters, but rather alludes to women and their duality in post-war Spanish society, marked by strong masculine values. Julia Minguillón began her artistic training at the age of eleven with the painter Castro Cires in Valladolid. She later completed her studies in Madrid, first at the School of Arts and Crafts and later at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts, finally graduating in 1932 as a teacher of drawing and painting. During these years of apprenticeship she was taught by Manuel Benedito, Cecilio Pla, Joaquín Valverde, Ignacio Pinazo and Eduardo Chicharro. Minguillón developed a personal style halfway between postmodernism and naturalism, and painted both landscapes and genre scenes, the latter brimming with a naive lyricism full of sensitivity that would mark later Galician painting. This can be seen in this scene: a circus troupe resting in the middle of a wooded landscape. He became known through the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, and in 1941 he was awarded a gold medal for "Escuela de Doloriñas" (Museo del Prado, on deposit at the Provincial Museum of Lugo). This work perfectly exemplifies Minguillón's style which, according to M.V. Carballo-Calero, is characterised by a tendency towards primitivism, which generally led him to paint on panel rather than on canvas, and by a schematic style with post-Cubist touches in its composition. This painter also took part in the most important international competitions, as well as in various group exhibitions. In 1948 she was awarded the Grand Prize for Fine Arts, and a year later she moved to Galicia, where she was appointed a corresponding member of the Galician Royal Academy. After a trip to America, in 1961 she settled permanently in Madrid, where she died four years later. She is currently mainly represented in the Provincial Museum of Lugo, although her works also form part of other collections such as the Nova Caixa Galicia, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Madrid and numerous museums in Galicia, the rest of Spain and abroad.