La Pinturitas of Arguedas - a fragile and ever-evolving oeuvre

The photographer Hervé Couton focuses on popular creations as well as Art Brut. In 2009, in the small Spanish village of Arguedas in Navarre (northern Spain), he discovered the work of Maria Angeles Fernandez Cuesta, known as "La Pinturitas" (small paintings). For the most part, this Spanish creator paints on the walls of a condemned restaurant. Meanwhile, Hervé Couton returns every year to photograph her oeuvre.

Disdained and mocked by part of the local population, Maria-Angeles, aka "the outsider," says she began painting in 2000 on the walls of that building, in order to depict those who made fun of her. She explains that for some time she took to sleeping in the cemetery, fearing less fearful of the dead than of the living!
Subjected to a life of many hardships, "La Pinturitas" most probably took up painting to keep her head above water.

Text by Hervé Couton on "La Pinturitas" of Arguedas

 

Publish Date: 18.02.2014