Menchu Gal

Menchu Gal painted still lifes, interiors, landscapes and portraits, but whichever path she took she always attempted to reflect herself, to take up her brushes and express herself with them, as if she felt that the colours and textures were an alphabet of her heart. If there is one thing that is characteristic of her oil paintings it is undoubtedly their lack of coldness, the sensation that behind every brushstroke the artist has left a small part of herself, a kind of positive energy that lives on in a latent state. There will be those who look at her Bahía nocturna (Bay at Night) and imagine themselves inside the story that it depicts, dreamers seeking the calm that is always conveyed by boats drawn up on the beach, white sand, the sacred murmur of the sea with hardly any other sounds to be heard. There will be those who gaze at her Acantilado (Cliff) and become aware of the nightmare of the abyss, the giddy sensation of its sheer drop. And also those who feel the desire to cross El puente (The Bridge) and get to the bottom of the mystery that lies concealed behind the balanced serenity of the scene. Menchu Gal presents the repeated miracle of the harvest, soars high above rooftop terraces, experiences the ecstasy of falling dusk and makes her way – taking us with her – into the “great forest” of storytelling, a world where everything is possible, and she is capable of making us count the clouds and delight in the different colours of the earth in her marvellous Abstracción paisajística (Landscape Abstraction). Her most internalised geographical settings, the ones that are drawn from the solid trunk of the tree of her childhood, are scenes of the north, panoramas of Irun, Fuenterrabía, Baztán, Elizondo, Bidasoa, San Juan, Cantabria and the simple moist green mountains that mark out the map of her personal experiences, but the branches of her emotions also reach out towards the landscape of Castile, filling the sprawling plains with bands of light-hearted colours that invite the spirit to expand. There are traditional compositions, such as Plaza del Ensanche (Irún), Fuenterrabía and Paisaje castellano VI (Castilian Landscape VI), but also bursts of subtlety and freedom that represent her personal imprint, such as Bodegón con sandía y otros objetos (Still Life with Watermelon and Other Objects), 1960, or Pueblo II (Town II), 1959, where she draws us into scenes from children’s tales, as in the “great forest”. Along the way we also find compositions that are almost “naive”, such as Bodegón con pajarito (Still Life with Small Bird) or Bodegón con figuras y tulipanes (Still Life with Figures and Tulips), from the final period of her life, which can be read as a return to childhood, an acclamation of innocence. The road is not monotonous, it varies and is renewed, it changes and forks in various directions, like Menchu Gal’s paintings.