In 1965, twelve women agreed to exhibit their art at the Círculo de Bellas Artes de Santa Cruz de Tenerife and at the Instituto de Estudios Hispánicos de Puerto De la Cruz. This was quite unusual as it meant giving visibility to a collective still in the shadow of fathers or husbands. The initiative came from the few women like Maud Westherdahl or Tanha Tamvelius who, during those years, were part of the group called Nuestro Arte, heir to the spirit of the Gaceta de arte, founded by Eduardo Westerdahl, which placed our Archipelago at the international avant-garde in the cultural field. They were also known thanks to the collaboration of some of them in the magazine Mujeres en la Isla, which contained articles written by a team composed only of women, thus becoming the first publication edited in Spain with a one hundred percent female staff.
The presentation text of the exhibition, extracted from the script of the documentary Las Doce, by Miguel G. Morales and Tamara Brito (2019), clearly indicated its intention: “Neither group, nor salon, nor collective, as we are very different. We exhibit together, nothing more. Coincidences, mutual sympathies, and the common desire to do something. Neither a female character. Simply being women would not have been enough reason to justify the exhibition. Nothing feminine -crochet-work-. Nothing feminist-suffragist-claim. No intention like men or better than them, which would imply a mixture of aggressiveness… and acknowledgment of their superiority. Purpose of the exhibition: simply, an act. To declare our artistic restlessness and seriousness and to present our search and its results.”
Despite the attempt to normalize an event that was not at all usual, the press at that time went so far as to describe the exhibition as “curious and unusual”. Las 12, as the exhibition was called, brought together different styles according to the different profiles of its protagonists, some of whom were foreigners residing on the island, bringing new airs to a Canarian society somewhat stagnant during the Franco years.
Alongside Maud Westerdahl, of French origin, the American Quita Brodhead, the Norwegian Birgitta Bergh, the Swedish Tanja Tanvelius, the Polish Vicky Penfold, and the Italian Carla Prina participated in this group. Lola Massieu, Jane Millares were artists from the Luján Pérez School, in Gran Canaria. Other participants in Las 12, such as María Belén Morales and Eva Fernández, belonged to Nuestro Arte, while Celia Ferreiro and Manón Ramos were connected to or involved in the activities of this avant-garde group.
A work by Vicky Penfold. / E. D.
Among this dozen artists who proved that art also bore the name of women, I would like to focus on two of them, due to their close relationship with the Valle de La Orotava. Vicky Penfold and Manon Ramos participated in that 1965 exhibition and had completely different lives that converged in a common space. The former was born in 1918, in Krakow, with a difficult adolescence and youth marked by the Second World War. After several years imprisoned and sent to a labor camp in Siberia, where she worked in tree felling, she was freed and in 1942 arrived in Africa, where she resumed painting and sculpture reflecting the African landscape around her. From 1962 to 1964, she settled in Paris and exhibited her work. In 1963, she traveled to Austria to attend classes by the great master of expressionism, Oscar Kokoschka, and arrived in Tenerife in 1964, where she continued painting and, this time, capturing the light and color of the Canarian landscape. Here, she became part of the Nuestro Arte group, which led her to participate in this exhibition of female artists. In 2004, she was named an Honorary Daughter of Puerto de la Cruz, where she passed away in 2013 at the age of 95. It is undeniable that the intrusion of this talent, mainly from Europe, attracted by our landscape and a favorable climate has further enriched our cultural heritage and made us slightly freer in a not-so-favorable context.
Manon Ramos was perhaps better known in La Orotava for being the wife of Dr. Enrique Sáenz, a gynecologist who helped bring an entire generation of villagers into the world, known for their artistic endeavors. Despite being born in Arucas (Gran Canaria), her heart remained in La Orotava, where she started her family and lived until her passing last November. Learning about her biography through her granddaughter, who proudly carries her same name, I have had the opportunity to read different reviews that speak of her professional career, cut short by her social context. But at this point, some doubts arise.
Self-portrait of Manon Ramos. / E. D.
Manon Ramos was born into a family influenced by art. Her childhood and adolescence were undoubtedly much more pleasant than those of Vicky Penfold, as she did not suffer the war’s effects in the same way. The daughter of sculptor Manolo Ramos, she grew up in her father’s studio surrounded by art and, despite her interest in sculpture, her father convinced her to opt for painting as it was a “more feminine” world. A Fine Arts graduate, she was friends with other artists such as César Manrique. As an anecdote and a reflection of the mentality of the time, a professor at the School of Fine Arts once told her that she deserved higher grades but reserved them for another classmate because she, being a woman, would not need them.
Her paintings reflect a blend of lights and shadows with a distinctive personal style. In the studio that her husband designed for her in the upper part of La Orotava, she dedicated her spare moments to painting portraits of family and friends, using vibrant colours impeccably. Still lifes and the representation of other everyday elements to which she added her own touch make up the extensive private collection of this great unknown artist who one day decided to paint in a different way and for a different audience. But was it really a thwarted professional career? Her granddaughter, after numerous conversations with her grandmother on this topic, believes that, despite a favourable environment that never forced her to abandon the brushes, she did lose that source of inspiration that comes to an artist through full dedication to their work. “Despite having a fantastic studio with the ideal conditions for painting, that inspiration hardly comes when one wants it, sporadically, in free moments, and I think that’s what happened to her and what is reflected in the themes of the paintings she continued to paint, free from any eccentricity.” Manon also recalls how her grandmother once contemplated what her painter’s career would have been like if she had devoted herself fully to that activity, although she acknowledges that for her family was the most important thing until the end of her life. Despite such reflections on the choices we make that lead us to one destiny or another, after listening to her granddaughter, I believe that Manon Ramos never regretted the decision that led her to a happy life in the company of her husband, her children, and the grandchildren who came later.
One of Manon Ramos’ works. / E. D.
In 2019, the CajaCanarias Foundation rescued that collection of Las 12 and at 92 years old, Manón was the only representative of the group who could attend the inauguration of the exhibition. There, in front of the media, she had words of affection for all those who were part of that unforgettable experience, 59 years ago now: “It was a time when women were not treated the same as men and thanks to these companions, we came together and were able to live a time of happiness. It was a springtime for me before returning to the reality of being at home with my four children. Each companion had their own world: they didn’t know what was happening to me and I didn’t know what was happening to them, but we gathered and talked about art, which was truly important.”
I conclude this week’s report by visiting a magnificent exhibition in Madrid of another contemporary of Manon, Isabel Quintanilla, a brilliant painter who belonged to the group of realists in Madrid. Quintanilla also reflects in her paintings the everyday life and landscapes of her time in Italy. Parallel lives with different destinies, but none thwarted.
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On the left, a work by Vicky Penfold; next to her, Manon Ramos poses with a self-portrait; above that image, another self-portrait of the same painter; above these lines, another of Manon Ramos’ works, a native of Arucas but an Adopted Daughter of La Orotava.
