María Gutierrez Cueto y Blanchard

description

An outstanding Spanish artist who worked in France for a long time and became a representative of the Paris school of painting. In contrast to her more famous Cubist compatriots Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris, Maria Gutierrez Blanchard, during her lifetime, mostly influenced the artistic renewal of Spanish fine art in the early twentieth century, as she worked at home, participated in national shows and worked as a teacher. The artist is considered a key figure of the Spanish avant-garde; her paintings are a valuable part of the collections of national museums and expositions in Europe.

Key ideas:

– At the first stage of her creative career, Maria Blanchard focused on portrait painting, gradually moving away from classical techniques and academic solid drawing to greater coloristic richness, greater freedom of form, as well as not too obtrusive, but bright expressiveness.

– The art of Blanchard was finally freed from the traditional atavism when she started using methods of Cubism. She passionately entered the art movement and worked a lot; many art experts of those and our times rightly believed that her technique and style understanding are higher than those of Albert Gleizes, Louis Marcoussis, Jean Metzinger and Fernand Leger.

– In Cubist works of Blanchard, a clear technological revolution can be traced. From the first cubism, in which she created fairly simple works, with easily identifiable figurative elements, the artist quickly moved on to more complex synthetic cubism. Experts point out that her style was undoubtedly influenced by Juan Gris, whose aesthetic postulates Maria shared. In her initial cubist canvases, she manipulated simple geometric figures superimposed on each other by planes, in her later compositions, she reduced the subject to important elements expressed in plans open from different points of view.

– Maria worked like if creating music compositions, or similarly to still-lifes of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Juan Gris, where elements are represented objectively, often with the help of collage as their essential part. Nevertheless, Maria Blanchard is freer in the interpretation of the chosen theme than those artists.

– Paintings by Blanchard are characterized by the artistic parameters of Orphism in the use of colors. This also applies to several abstract trends expressed in the depicted objects. Therefore, by the definition of specialists, Maria Blanchard had “a very personal cubism”, which is distinguished by its formal rigor, its structure of construction, and the mastery of color characteristic of this artist.

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1881

1903 - 1908

1909 - 1910

1913 - 1916

1916

1920 - 1928

1928 - 1930

1932

The artist was born

María Gutierrez Cueto y Blanchard was born on March 6 in the Spanish city of Santander into a large wealthy family of liberal journalists. She had a congenital spinal deformity, which made her hunchback. From childhood, she discovered artistic talent, studied drawing and painting with her father; in 1899, she went to Madrid, where she took private lessons.

She studied at the Madrid Academy of Fine Arts

She studied at the Madrid Academy of Fine Arts; famous Madrid artists F. A. de Sotomayor, M. Benedito, E. Sala taught her the basics of fine art. She received a medal at the National Exhibition for the painting “First Steps”.

She went to study in Paris

Having received a stipend from her native city as a talented student, she went to study in Paris. She was a student of A. Camarasa and Van Dongen, a follower of Fauvism. Received a silver medal at the National Exhibition of Spain.

Returned to Spain

Returned to Spain; in Madrid, she worked in one studio with Mexican artist Diego Rivera in the Goya Street. She met artist and sculptor-innovator Jacques Lipschitz, as well as Gomez de la Serna, a Spanish writer who enthusiastically promoted avant-garde. The painting “Madrid Venus” caused a scandal at the Pintores Íntegros exhibition organized by him. She spent some time in Salamanca (the centre of the autonomous Spanish region of Castile), studying with a group of talented students.

Settled in Paris

Andre Salmon facilitated the participation of the artist in the show “Contemporary Art of France” (L’Art Moderne en France) in the salon d’Antin in Paris. She finally settled in Paris and, with the help of Lipschitz, made friends with Cubist J. Gris, and then with his like-minded person Andre Lhote. Friendship with them made the artist seriously interested in this style, so she began to participate in their exhibitions actively.

The artist's painting “Communications” was a resounding success

In the Salon of Independent, the artist’s painting “Communications” was a resounding success. The following year, she, together with Lhote and several other artists, began to develop Neocubism. The art magazine “Choice” (Sélection) recommended paintings by Blanchard for the exhibition “Cubism and Neocubism” (Cubisme et Neocubisme). She participated in the prestigious art exhibition “The Art of the French Avant-Garde” (d’Art d’Avantguarda French, Barcelona, 1921, Sala Dalmau), in exhibitions in the cities of France, and also in the show “Future” (Ceux de Demain, Belgium, 1928).

The deep religious crisis

Gradually moved away from the cubist style, worked hard to support her sister and children, who often served her as models. She experienced a deep religious crisis, moved closer to Catholicism and planned to go to a monastery. In the last years of her life, she suffered from a severe illness.