Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
ADJUNCT MODULE D: WORLD ART
Preferred Title:
The Fair
Alternate Title:
La verbena
Image View:
Detail, group of sailors in front of a fun-house mirror
Creator:
Maruja Mallo (Spanish painter, 1902-1995)
Location:
repository: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid, Madrid, Spain) AS01985
Location Note:
52 Santa Isabel Street
GPS:
40.408889-3.694444
Date:
1927 (creation)
Cultural Context:
Spanish
Style Period:
Surrealist; Twentieth century
Work Type 1:
painting (visual work)
Classification:
Paintings
Material:
oil paint on canvas
Technique:
oil painting (technique)
Measurements:
119 cm (height) x 165 cm (width)
Subjects:
genre; recreation and games; festivals
Description:
In 1928, at a one-woman exhibition put on by Ortega y Gasset in the rooms of the Revista de Occidente, Maruja Mallo showed the four oil paintings in the Madrid Fair series of which La verbena (The Fair) is one. Imbued with a sharp critical sense, which is translated by the painter into subtle satire, the painting contains all the elements of the traditional popular Madrid fairs (the shooting gallery, the test-your-strength machine), alongside the principal characters and other, stranger kinds of characters like the one-eyed giant, the priest enjoying one of the sideshows or the man with deformed feet, begging with a guitar on his back. All this contributes to an undeniably Surrealist atmosphere. (Source: Museo Reina Sofia [website]; https://www.museorei nasofia.es/en/)
Collection:
Archivision Adjunct Module D: World Art
Identifier:
7A1-MALLO-MRS-SF-A07
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.

The Fair