Book excerpt: The first book in English on the artist, Maruja Mallo and the Spanish Avant-Garde examines the life and art of a woman sidelined by history and her male counterparts. Out of the misogyny and political conflict of interwar Madrid, Mallo emerges, not as Surrealist muse, but as a vital figure in the flowering of Spain's cultural vanguard. Unprecedented interviews with Mallo's family provide fresh insights into this extraordinary artist.