Obituaries 

Ouka Leele (1957-2022)

Obituaries 

Ouka Leele (1957-2022)

Sam Jones   /  Source:  The Guardian
25/05/2022


The Spanish photographer, artist and poet Ouka Leele, one of the greatest and brightest talents of the Movida Madrileña cultural explosion that followed the end of the Francisco Franco dictatorship, has died at the age of 64.

Born Bárbara Allende Gil de Biedma in Madrid in 1957, Leele began drawing, painting and devouring history of art books at an early age. After studying photography, she alighted on what would become her trademark style – an often riotous fusion of monochrome photographic images overpainted with gaudy watercolours.

Stints in Barcelona and New York were followed by a return to Madrid in 1981 and to a capital that was embracing the creative, debauched and often destructive early days of Spain’s post-Franco reawakening...

The Guardian: Spanish photographer Ouka Leele, star of the Movida Madrileña, dies aged 64


Included Tags: