COLLECTION / 1945-1989 / Spain / Ouka Leele

1,230 works of art and documents.

Barbara Allende, Ouka Leele (Madrid, 1957-2022) was going to be a painter, but ended up being one of the most iconic women photographers of the Spain that shed dictatorship to embrace the democratic promise of the eighties. Winner of the Premio Nacional in 2005 for «questioning the limits of photography», her dynamic and self-taught work, epitomized by her painted negatives, defined the Madrid of the Movida Madrileña, although, paradoxically, she lived in Barcelona between the decisive years of 1978 and 1982. Before that, she contributed to forging the legend of that cultural movement in Madrid from her apartment on Paseo Imperial, which, rented by Ceesepe and El Hortelano, was, around 1976, a meeting place for artists from all walks of life and a precursor of what was to come. Before becoming Ouka Leele, Bárbara Allende —also known as Bárbara or as BA, for Beata Aaah, and as Ouka Lele with only one e— drew series and comics that reproduced situations which were naive and domestic in appearance, but through which a fantastic inner world emerges where the feminine gaze and that «domestic mystique» in which she sets her work are very present.



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