Born in rural Galicia, Spain in 1902, Mallo moved to Madrid in 1922 to receive art training. She quickly became a central figure in the Generation of ‘27, an interdisciplinary group of the Spanish avant-garde that included Salvador Dalí, Federico García Lorca and Luis Buñuel. Mallo, like her contemporaries, was politically engaged in both art and life. In 1936, with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Mallo went in exile to Buenos Aires. Mallo returned to Madrid in 1965. She was awarded the Gold Medal of Madrid in 1990, and the Gold Medal of the Xunta de Galicia in 1991. Since her death in 1995 she has been the subject of a major retrospective and publication organized by the Casa das Artes, Vigo and the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid (2010), as well as many solo and group exhibitions. Her work is in the collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Fundación José Ortega y Gasset, Madrid, Spain; Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales, Montevideo, Uruguay; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her work is also in the collection and on permanent view at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain. A catalogue raisonné of Maruja Mallo’s paintings is being prepared by Galería Guillermo de Osma, Madrid, Spain, for publication in 2019.