Juana Mordó’s return to Spain. Breaking with the past, reconfiguration and international artistic projection

Abstract

This article analyses the figure of Juana Mordó through her return to Spain as a place of refuge during the Second World War. The renowned gallery owner of Sephardic origin admitted her identity problems due to the break with the past and its subsequent reconfiguration, linking herself to the Franco regime, which meant her consecration by the cultural and artistic elite. This political approach of Mordó is fundamental to understand how her figure evolved until reaching a great social impact at the time, so we analyses who her closest circle was. However, with the opening of her gallery in 1964, a progressive change in her ideological positioning occurred as the democratic transition arrived until she became known for her leftist ideas and admitted her Sephardic origins that she had kept hidden during the regime. The interviews she gave after the dictatorship are key to detecting unconnected data in her figure that she herself wanted to hide from her past. Therefore, her trip to Spain was fundamental for the reconfiguration of a new identity that has transcended to the present day.