Carmen Polo. Viuda de Franco (Carmen Polo. Franco's Widow)

Las Costus, a duo formed by Enrique Naya and Juan Carrero, were an essential reference point for Madrid’s La Movida movement. Their home and studio in the Malasaña neighbourhood was a meeting point for the capital’s underground scene until their tragic deaths from AIDS and suicide, respectively, in 1989. Their work fused tradition and modernity, kitsch, popular and religious icons, humour and social criticism. This early work painted by Naya anticipates the irreverent aesthetic that would define Costus’ career. Created in the midst of the Spanish transition to democracy, the portrait transforms Carmen Polo, a symbol of the most conservative Francoism, into a pop icon, stripping her of solemnity through flat, saturated colours, bold lines and a kitsch air. The depiction is subversive, trivialising power and questioning the symbolic authority of the “Lady of Meirás” at a time when Spain was torn between rupture and continuity. This portrait was exhibited in the show Chochonismo ilustrado (Enlightened Chochonism), opening Madrid’s Vijande Gallery in October 1981, a few months after the attempted coup d’état in Spain. This exhibition marked the beginning of Costus’ recognition and their incorporation into the visual discourse that defined Spanish culture in the 1980s.

Raúl Martínez Arranz