BOOK REVIEW MARÍA BLANCHARD: LIKE A SHADOW Author: Baltasar Magro From the reader report by: Martina Mauritz By his artist novel María Blanchard. Como una sombra, Baltasar Magro makes this Spanish painter, who made a unique contribution to the development of cubism, apart from Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris, the focus of attention: Marie Blanchard (1881-1932). Although in Paris in the 1910s and 20s she was very influential all her lifetime and her artistic language was innovative and unique, soon after her death she was forgotten. The search for traces of women as protagonists of the world of art and the revision of the traditional historiography of art started with the women´s movement of the 1970s, but even half a century later there remains much to do; Magro´s view at the last weeks of Blanchard´s life provides a solid contribution in this respect. […] As the character of novel, María lacks rough edges, and the novel somewhat lacks a story, however as a painter made into a literary character Blanchard is fully justified, for also fiction contributes to correcting the false picture of the traditional historiography of arts. To approach the topic also at the literary level, in recent years exhibitions and acquisitions have made the German audience sufficiently aware of the works of unjustly forgotten female artists […]. And even if the Spanish `María Blanchard´ of the title may be unknown, Picasso, Gris, Modigliano or Diego Rivera, the artists mentioned in the blurb, are not. And I am sure that for most people the moment `after´ having read this novel will be followed by a `before´ dealing further with this interesting and important artist.
PUBLISHED IN NEW SPANISH BOOKS DE
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