Maria Girona Benet

MARÍA GIRONA BENET (Barcelona, 1923–2015).
“Walk on the Beach.”
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 46 x 55 cm; 49 x 57.5 cm (frame).

Girona trained under her uncle, the painter Rafael Benet. In 1946, she exhibited for the first time with the group “Els Vuit” in Barcelona. In 1950, he received a scholarship from the French government and settled in Paris for four years, also undertaking study trips to London, the Netherlands, and Belgium. During these years, he began an intense exhibition schedule that took his work to cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris, and Buenos Aires, among others. She also participated in the October and May Salons in Barcelona, and in 1953 she exhibited at the Second Hispanic-American Biennial in Havana. Married to the painter Albert Ràfols Casamada, she taught drawing at the Eina School in Barcelona beginning in 1970. In 1997, she received the City of Barcelona Prize for the Visual Arts. Her artistic language began with a coloristic Fauvism based on Cubist composition, evolving into a style characterized by simple images, soft forms, and a lyrical atmosphere. In the 1970s, she adopted the technique of collage, which she used in a series of works composed of naïve ornamental elements, evoking past eras and atmospheres. María Girona’s work is represented in various private collections, as well as in the Museum of Modern Art in Santo Domingo.