Mari Pepa Estrada

MARI PEPA ESTRADA (Málaga 1905 - 1997).
Untitled, 1971.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 46 x 61 cm; 64 x 78 cm (frame).
Mari Pepa Estrada was a Spanish painter, considered the most important naïf author from Malaga. She was born in an upper class family. Her father was José Estrada Estrada, lawyer and Minister of Justice with Dámaso Berenguer y Fusté. Her uncle Eduardo Estrada, illustrator of the magazine Blanco y Negro, was the one who introduced her to the world of art.
She married Manuel Pérez Bryan, a doctor who was also mayor of the city of Malaga. He never showed his support for Mari Pepa's artistic facet, which meant that she did not show them to the public until she was 64 years old, when her friend the journalist Josefina Carabias convinced her to exhibit them publicly. She first made her debut, secretly, in Lisbon and then in Malaga. Her art soon captivated the public.
She sold her works before opening in the world of exhibitions, showed her best canvases in the European Parliament and won the theater prize El Espectador y la Crítica (Fundación Juan March) for her scenography in "Los cuernos de don Friolera" (The Horns of Don Friolera).