The image of the female artists during the Francoism through the press: from the babbling girl to the female-male painter

Abstract

This article proposes a study on the image of the female artists that was transmitted through the first Francoist press. Based on some specific case studies, the analysis of the documentary sources shows how the official media talked about these painters, what topics about their life and work were the most frequent in the critical, misogynist discourse of the time and how their productions were received by the general and specialized public. Gender studies provide the methodological approach to address this issue; the press reports examined reflected the social and gender parameters dictated by national-catholicism and were inherited, for the most part, from the 19th century. It has been thus possible to see how the discourse on female artists was oriented towards the reaffirmation and strengthening of the woman model that existed during the dictatorship. However, the article also pays attention to the cracks produced in these discourses by the complexity of these artists’ identities and the diversity of their positions. Especially through the analysis of interviews in the press, the article shows how the image offered in the news, in articles and opinion pieces did not always correspond to the reality that these artists illuminated when they spoke for themselves. These tensions and discursive dissonances illustrate a period which was particularly problematic for the development of women’s creative personality.