Marta Cárdenas began her artistic career as a self-taught landscape painter but went on to attend drawing classes at the Artistic Association of Gipuzkoa. In 1963, she enrolled in the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, graduating in 1968. During this period, she came into contact with Madrid's avant-garde movement. She also spent time in Paris in 1969 with a scholarship from the French government. Her work from the late 1960s and the 1970s centres on intimate portraits and interiors in dark and austere tones, which are reminiscent of the work of Giorgio Morandi. From 1979 on, she began to paint exteriors, in landscapes that synthesise the forms of nature and reproduce its colours. Some of her paintings from this period recall the later work of Claude Monet, with certain expressionist elements in the brushstrokes. During the 1990s, she gradually moved towards an even greater synthesis of shape, sometimes to the point of abstraction. Following a trip to India in 1996, she also began to introduce oriental elements, featuring dynamic graphics, linear elements and colour planes, all of which is still present in her work.
Since the 1960s, her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions at galleries in the Basque Country and Madrid. She has also featured in shows at the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon, 1985); the Bilbao-Bizkaia Kutxa Foundation (Bilbao, 1995); the Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea (Donostia/San Sebastián, 2004); and more recently in a retrospective of her work at the Kursaal (Donostia/San Sebastián, 2016). She has also taken part in some important group exhibitions, including the XI Salón de los 16, at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Madrid, 1983), and 'Mujeres en el arte español' [Women in Spanish Art'], at the Conde Duque Centre (Madrid, 1984). In 1980 she was awarded a scholarship from the Juan March Foundation.
Marta Cárdenas began her artistic career as a self-taught landscape painter but went on to attend drawing classes at the Artistic Association of Gipuzkoa. In 1963, she enrolled in the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, graduating in 1968. During this period, she came into contact with Madrid's avant-garde movement. She also spent time in Paris in 1969 with a scholarship from the French government. Her work from the late 1960s and the 1970s centres on intimate portraits and interiors in dark and austere tones, which are reminiscent of the work of Giorgio Morandi. From 1979 on, she began to paint exteriors, in landscapes that synthesise the forms of nature and reproduce its colours. Some of her paintings from this period recall the later work of Claude Monet, with certain expressionist elements in the brushstrokes. During the 1990s, she gradually moved towards an even greater synthesis of shape, sometimes to the point of abstraction. Following a trip to India in 1996, she also began to introduce oriental elements, featuring dynamic graphics, linear elements and colour planes, all of which is still present in her work.
Since the 1960s, her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions at galleries in the Basque Country and Madrid. She has also featured in shows at the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon, 1985); the Bilbao-Bizkaia Kutxa Foundation (Bilbao, 1995); the Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea (Donostia/San Sebastián, 2004); and more recently in a retrospective of her work at the Kursaal (Donostia/San Sebastián, 2016). She has also taken part in some important group exhibitions, including the XI Salón de los 16, at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Madrid, 1983), and 'Mujeres en el arte español' [Women in Spanish Art'], at the Conde Duque Centre (Madrid, 1984). In 1980 she was awarded a scholarship from the Juan March Foundation.