Self-Referentiality in the Work of María Dolores Casanova (1914-2007): An Analysis of the Biographical-Artistic Dialogue in her Painting

Abstract

María Dolores Casanova Teruel was a relevant painter in the context of Spanish contemporary art, from the late 60s until approximately 1988. However, her transcendence has been diluted over time. Given the narrative and self-referential nature of her production, this article aims to reconstruct her life trajectory, while she was active in the public space. To do this, an analysis of the biographical-artistic dialogue in her work is carried out, in which her published memoirs, the backbone of her discourse, are confronted with her pictorial creations. The study is also based on both interviews with Casanova published in the press and other unpublished interviews with her family and friends, as well as archival material. The investigation will prove an almost exact correspondence between the different episodes and interests of her life, as recorded in her autobiography, and her artistic legacy. However, at the same time, the examination of those materials will confirm that, where the artist’s text «lies», shows indifference, or hides certain key moments of her existence, her paintings reveal her most intimate «self», and it can only be found in her art and not in her chronicle.