Inspirational Women Artists in the BBVA Collection: Mari Puri Herrero


Mari Puri Herrero (Bilbao, 1942) is an outstanding painter and engraver within the Basque contemporary art scene. The artist’s style, hard to classify within a particular art movement, was defined by Fernando Huici as “mental impressionism.” Fluctuating between abstraction and figuration, Herrero’s language is characterized by an intimate representation of landscape, society and her own inner world. With a long trajectory shaped by her Basque roots and her sojourns in Madrid, Amsterdam and Paris, she has always managed to look with fresh eyes, ready to capture everyday or supernatural occurrences from a deeply personal perspective.

Herrero has been the recipient of many distinctions throughout her career: in 2012 she was awarded the Sabino Arana Prize, recognising her contribution to Aste Nagusia, Bilbao’s annual summer festival, for her creation of the character Marijaia, in 1978; in 2019, the City Council of Bilbao recognised her as Ilustre de Bilbao, illustrious citizen of Bilbao, for her “outstanding career and her contribution to the city’s imaginary”; and in 2022 she was awarded the Gure Artea Prize for her lifetime’s work.

Her work can be found in the collections of many major institutions, including the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, the Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao, Spain’s National Library and the the Artium Museum.

Question: In your formative years, you painted silhouettes with thicker brushwork, influenced by your study of historical engravers and your training in engraving techniques and painting in Madrid and in Amsterdam. How do you juggle these two disciplines, and what do you bring to painting from engraving?

Answer: As could not be otherwise, when I started painting I knew virtually nothing about its technical aspects. In painting I was always interested in the vibration of colours, in their atmospheric value. Influenced by the hatching of lines in
, I tried to achieve a similar effect with the colours and, although I later learned other things, that idea has always stuck with me. In fact, it was what pushed me to go to Amsterdam, attracted by its tradition in painter-engravers.

Q: There are several versions of The Dining Room, one of your best-known works, both as paintings (1974, 1978-80, 1991-94, …) and prints (1979). The BBVA Collection also has two versions of the diptychs Night and Day, which went on show at the Durango History Museum in 1986 together with a number of watercolours. How do those almost identical repetitions come about throughout your career?

A: Whenever I’m interested in a particular subject matter I like to keep going back to it. I like looking at it in different ways, often similar but seldom identical. In the two diptychs you mentioned, I started with the two smaller ones, measuring one metre high, but even before completing them I realised that I needed more space, much bigger dimensions, for the colour. Then I painted the larger ones and only after that did I finish the small works. In a way, it was all at the same time.

Around that period, I also made some watercolours and drawings with the same subject, which were exhibited together with the large diptychs at Salas de Ezkurdi, then part of the Durango Museum, directed by the recently deceased Leopoldo Zugaza. The museum acquired just the works on paper.
Mari Puri Herrero - Night - 1985
1985
Mari Puri Herrero - Day - 1985
1985
Mari Puri Herrero - Caput Mortuum. La ría en el Abra (Caput mortuum. The Estuary in Abra Bay) - 1987-1988
1987-1988