Untitled 

Montserrat Gudiol made this untitled painting with oil on canvas. It presents us with a figure emerging from an ochre-green background, holding a spiky blue flower. Gudiol was a Catalan artist who grew up during the Spanish Civil War and under the subsequent dictatorship of Franco, a period of huge upheaval and change. So much so that Gudiol’s work can be linked to a time when art was used as a form of resistance, but she also withdrew from the public role of art and delved deeper into spirituality. The figure, perhaps a nun, has closed eyes, which, combined with the flower, evokes themes of inner contemplation, purity, and suffering. Perhaps, for Gudiol, the most subversive thing she could do was to turn away from the public sphere and focus on the private, spiritual one. To explore these ideas further, we might look at the cultural history of Catalonia, the history of art under Franco's dictatorship, and also, texts on female spirituality.