The first stage of the IEHC (Institute of Hispanic Studies of the Canary Islands) and the progresist impulse in female artists exhibitions from 1953 to 1965

Abstract

There is a fragile but visible line that breaks the monotony and the darkness of the 50s and 60s in Canary Islands. At this dark moment when everything was silenced, in which more conservative and restrictive morality had seized up in society, several female artists decided to battle it out for their Art and managed to make several exhibitions and articles that culminated in an exhibition of women artists, which was titled Las Doce.

To frame this story, protagonized by several women from different backgrounds, but especially linked by the artist and surrealist intellectual Maud Bonneaud – Westerdahl, we must proceed to explain the place where it took place, the Institute of Estudios Hispánicos de Canarias (IEHC) which gave shelter to the unfinished project of the Museum of Contemporary Art Eduardo Westerdahl in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife.

The search carried out through the several Public and restricted Archives, as well as multiple readings and interviews, have been essential to link the different parts of this story that we present, despite it having been overshadowed by the traditional History of Art, coming to light and helping to better understand the importance of these women who made it possible.