Magalí Herrera

• Name — Magali Herrera • Born — 1914 • Birthplace — Rivera, Uruguay • Died — 1992 • Field — * Painting • Drawing • Movement — * Art brut • Outsider art • Patrons — Jean Dubuffet

Magali Herrera was born in 1914 in Rivera, Uruguay to a notable local family. She was an autodidact who worked in a variety of media prior to creating the visual works for which she is known. She was a precocious writer of poems and stories, which were never published, and also wrote for several daily papers, working as a journalist. She enjoyed organizing poetry evenings and befriended well known Uruguayan poet Juana de Ibarbourou. She began painting intermittently in the early 1950s but it wasn't until 1965, after a period of severe depression, that she began to paint regularly. This activity became central to her existence with periods of intense creative work during which she would paint day and night. Depression, occasionally so intense that it resulted in suicide attempts, continued to plague her and in 1992 she took her own life.

In 1967, while traveling with her husband, she completed two drawings in Paris which she took to show, renowned painter and patron of many Art Brut creators, Jean Dubuffet, leaving her work with his secretary. Dubuffet immediately bought the works. Dubuffet's interest led to other purchases: the director of Plaisir de France, Claude Fregnac, bought two pieces and author Michel Tapié acquired work as well.