El Hortelano
Original for Europa Requiem?!, where the name Ouka Leele appears for the very first time, 1977. Ink and white lead on cardboard, 30.2 x 42.6 cm
Ceesepe
Untitled [El Hortelano and Ouka Lele], n.d. [after 1979?]. Ink and pencil on cardboard, 66.3 x 48.5 cm
Ouka Leele
Selfportrait, from the session germ of Peluquería, n.d.
Ouka Leele
Original for the cover of Star, n. 48, 1980. Collage of intervened pictures on cardboard, 35 x 49.5 cm
Ouka Leele
La familia, n.d. Photocollage, white lead and ink on paper, on cardboard, 17.5 x 12.5 cm approx. ea. [cover and inside] [selection]
Ouka Leele
Poesías siniestras, December 1978/1999. Mixed media on paper, 15 x 10.5 cm [cover and inside]
Ouka Leele
Ouka Lele [outline, drawings and pictures], n.d. Mixed media on paper, 27.5 x 22.5 cm approx.
Ouka Leele
From the series Queriendo hacer cómics, 1977. Ink and watercolour on cardboard, 35 x 31 cm
Ouka Leele
Cabeza helénica and untitled, from the series Mujeres elegantes, 1979. Ink and coloured pencils, 21.5 x 27.5 cm
Ouka Leele
Yo, 3 de enero de 1987, from the series Autorretrato, 1987. Pencil and cardboard, 30.4 x 39.6 cm
Ouka Leele
Le petit dejenner, from the series Dibujos psicológicos, 1987. Ink on paper, 21.4 x 31.4 cm
Ouka Leele
¿Qué tienen las gordas que tanto me…?, from the series Cómics y dibujos antes de Ouka Leele, n.d. Ink and coloured pencils on paper, 21.5 x 15.6 cm
Ouka Leele
Untitled [lemons], n.d. Ink and coloured pencils on paper, 12.1 x 8.5 cm
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.