Rocío Maldonado

Rocío Maldonado (born 1951) is a Mexican artist who was born in Pucallpa, Perú.

She rose to prominence in the art world during the 1980s Neo-Mexicanism movement. Her works, often compared to Frida Kahlo and Maria Izquierdo, depict feminist concerns and challenge cultural ideals of womanhood. Maldonado's artistic style has evolved over time, with her primary focus being the female body, addressing social, political, and cultural issues. She is known for using various mediums, including papier-mâché dolls, wood, paint, gesso wax, and fabric. Maldonado's extensive education took her from Mexico to Sweden, India, Israel, and Spain. Some of her notable artworks include Soldadito de Plomo, Las Dos Hermanas, and Éctasis de Santa Teresa.

Biography
Rocío Maldonado established her career and rose into the art world in the 1980s during the Neo-Mexicanism movement. Her works are a depiction of feminist concerns that challenge cultural ideals on womanhood. Often times her work is compared to that of Frida Kahlo, Maria Izquierdo and Norma Bessouet. Maldonado’s works have been exhibited all over the world in California, Spain, Mexico, Australia, and New York. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York is the permanent home to a some of her works.

Maldonado’s artistic style changed throughout the years; she began painting desert landscapes with vibrant colors some of her early work is similar to Neo-Expressionist artworks with the addition of Mexican culture subject matter. Ultimately, the themes addressed in her artworks fit into the art movement of the 1980s Neo-Mexicanismo which show a variety of Mexican beliefs throughout a variety of artistic depictions during this time. By 1995, she moves to Lima, Perú and starts to explore new techniques. Maldonado’s prominent subject matter is the female which can also categorize he works as Feminist art, she uses the female body to make social and political commentary as well to address questions within her own culture. Her reoccurring use of the female body also shows her personal concerns with how society views women and how society treats women. Many of her works play with the idea of female beauty and their unattainable standards.

Maldonado works with a couple different mediums, she is well-known for the use of papier-mâché dolls, wood, paint, gesso wax and fabric. The palette she commonly uses other than black and white are ochre, to resemble earth, and red, to resemble blood, the two colors together in her work are symbolic of “corporeality and spirituality.”

Education
Maldonado was the eldest child of eleven children. She discovered her interest in art at the early age of ten, her father was not a big supporter of her love for art or her aspirations to pursue art as a career, but her mother was. At the age of 12, she is enrolled at the Instituto de Bellas Artes y Educación (INBA) in Nayarit. She then moved on to study Interior Design at the Women’s University of Guadalajara. At the age of 24, she continued her formal education in the arts at La Esmeralda Art School in Mexico City. At this point Maldonado still craved and sought more knowledge at the National Art School in Xochimilco.

In her quest to perfect her techniques and finding her style, Maldonado moved to Stockholm, Sweden and resided there for about eight years. She continued to experiment and work there, in Sweden she begins to draw influence by figurative art while at community college, Konstskolan Basis. Once again, she packed up and traveled to India then Israel and in 2010 she has another prolonged stay in Barcelona, Spain. In Spain, she again goes back to school, from 2011–2014 she is at Escola Massana and from 2014–2017 she is at Artes Aplicadas al Muro. Today she lives in Sant Cugat del Vallés, Spain and produces work out of her personal workshop in Mercantic.

Soldadito de Plomo (Little Lead Soldier), 1984
Soldadito de Plomo is done in acrylic on canvas, 46.3 x 38.2 inches, this work is a depiction of one of Rocío Maldonado’s papier mâché dolls. The doll in this illustration is oversized centered on the canvas and accompanied by two smaller male figures a farmer and a soldier on a horse. In this composition she is using the doll to represent “the concept of woman as a plaything to be manipulated.”

Las Dos Hermanas (The Two Sisters), 1986
Las Dos Hermanas work is acrylic and collage on canvas, 71.5 x 55.88 inches. This work is a depiction of five objects a doll, flower vase with white lilies, a human heart, one single red rose, and a white classical sculptural head. The title of the painting suggest that you are looking at a depiction of two sisters but what the viewer has before them instead is doll with human-sized portions and the sculptural head which is supposed to be Aphrodite the Greek goddess of love. The collocation of these two images is meant to raise the questions of “hierarchies of race, standards of beauty…the sacred and profane, purity and sexuality.” The use of the doll also conveys the idea of societal ideas of women having no autonomy only being deemed as objects of manipulation.

Éctasis de Santa Teresa (Ecstasy of Saint Theresa), 1989
The work Éctasis de Santa Teresa is oil on canvas, 29.5 x37 x 5.5 inches here Maldonado depicts a version of Bernini’s sculpture, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, she paints only her head to emphasize her expression. Along with the framed depiction of Theresa’s head and face Maldonado also illustrated male torsos in the same classical fashion. Maldonado’s Theresa is “more woman than saint," she plays with the idea of women being dominated by both sacred and profane love and with the eroticism led by the male gaze.