Rosario de Velasco (1904–1991) started painting as a student in Madrid in the 1920s, creating portraits, landscapes, and seascapes in a traditional style imbued with her own brand of magical realism. Then came the turbulent Spanish Civil War; Velasco was sentenced to death but she escaped, eloped, and eventually moved to Barcelona. She remained in Catalonia for the rest of her life, painting scenes that possess a volumetric modernity touched with surrealism. Posthumously, Velasco’s links to the Spanish dictator Franco were the subject of much debate. In this show, which comes after a battle of two decades and contains many of Velasco’s greatest works, her great-niece, one of the curators, attempts to clear the air. —Elena Clavarino