236 - MARIA ANTONIA DANS BOADO (Oza dos Ríos, A Coruña, 1922 – Madrid, 1988).

MARIA ANTONIA DANS BOADO (Oza dos Ríos, A Coruña, 1922 – Madrid, 1988). "Farmworker." Wax on paper. Signed in the lower margin. Dimensions: 50 x 70 cm; 74 x 94 cm (frame). With an aesthetic reminiscent of naïve art, María Antonia Dans places the peasant woman in a landscape layered with different chromatic bands that separate the sky, the mountain, and the sown field. Fiery cerulean tones combine with touches of sienna and wheat. Here, Dans reinterprets the “Fauve” legacy in her own distinctive style. María Antonia Dans began her artistic training in the studio of Dolores Díaz Baliño and at the School of Arts and Crafts in Oza dos Ríos (A Coruña). In the early 1950s, she moved to Madrid, where she continued her studies and lived for the rest of her life, attending classes at the Círculo de Bellas Artes and the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. In Madrid, she also met Benjamín Palencia, who—along with Daniel Vázquez Díaz—would become her main influences. He stood out for a style sometimes described as “naïf,” which, in reality, is closer to a form of neo-expressionism with deliberately naïve roots, in which the influence of traditional embroidery from his native region is particularly evident. Among his subjects, it is important to highlight the landscapes—often simple and featuring mosaic-like patterns—and the themes related to agricultural work in the countryside or at sea, which were very common throughout his career. His work has been exhibited in both Madrid and A Coruña, as well as in Paris (where he was awarded the City Medal) and in other cities, and is held in various private collections and institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Madrid, in virtually all the museums of contemporary art in Galicia (and in those of several Spanish provinces), etc.