FANTASTIC WOMEN. SURREAL WORLDS FROM MERET OPPENHEIM TO FRIDA KAHLO

SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANK­FURT,

13 FEBRUARY 2020 – 24 MAY 2020

Goddess, she-devil, doll, fetish, nymphet, or wonderful dream crea­ture—women were the central subject matter of Surre­alist male fantasies. It was often only in the role of companion or model that female artists could succeed in pene­trating the circle surrounding André Breton, the founder of the group of Surre­al­ists. However, on closer exam­i­na­tion it becomes evident that the partic­i­pa­tion of women artists in the move­ment was consid­er­ably larger than is gener­ally known or reported.

The SCHIRN is now presenting the female contri­bu­tion to Surre­alism for the first time in a major thematic exhi­bi­tion. Female artists differed from their male colleagues above all in their reversal of perspec­tive: They often embarked on a search for a (new) model of female iden­tity by exploring their own reflec­tion or by adopting different roles. Contem­po­rary polit­ical events, liter­a­ture, and non-Euro­pean myths and reli­gions are further subjects that the Surre­alist women examine in their works.  

The exhi­bi­tion focuses on women artists who were directly asso­ci­ated with the Surre­alist move­ment founded in Paris in the early 1920s, though some­times only for a short period. Featuring about 260 remark­able paint­ings, works on paper, sculp­tures, photographs, and films by 34 artists, the exhi­bi­tion covers a wide range of styles and subjects. Besides well-known figures like Louise Bour­geois, Claude Cahun, Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo, Meret Oppen­heim, and Dorothea Tanning, numerous as yet lesser-known artists from more than three decades of Surre­alist art, such as Toyen, Alice Rahon, and Kay Sage, also await discovery. The exhi­bi­tion features repre­sen­ta­tive selec­tions of works by each of the artists, while at the same time reflecting networks and friend­ships among the women artists in Europe, the US, and Mexico.

An exhi­bi­tion of SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANK­FURT, in coope­ra­tion with Loui­siana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk.

Leonora Carrington, Autoportrait, à l'auberge du Cheval d'Aube, 1937/38, oil on canvas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020

Bridget Tichenor, The Surrealists/The Specialists, 1956, Oil on Mazonite, 40 x 30,2 cm, Private Collection Mexico, © Bridget Tichenor

Toyen, Le Paravent, 1966, Oil and collage on canvas, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris / The Roger-Viollet Photoagency © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020

Dorothea Tanning, Voltage, 1942, Oil on canvas, Collection Ulla und Heiner Pietzsch, Berlin, © The Estate of Dorothea Tanning/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, Photo: Jochen Littkemann, Berlin

Kay Sage, At the Appointed Time, 1942, Oil on canvas, Newark Museum of Art, Bequest of Kay Sage Tanguy, 1964 © Estate of Kay Sage/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020

Dora Maar, 29 Rue d'Astorg, 1936, Photomontage, silver salt print, Musée national Picasso-Paris, Dation Pablo Picasso 1979, MP3623, © bpk / RMN - Grand Palais / Dora Maar / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020

Jacqueline Lamba, André Breton, Yves Tanguy, Cadavre exquis, 1938, collage on paper, Private Collection, Courtesy of the Mayor Gallery, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020

Frida Kahlo, Selfportrait with thorn necklace, 1940, Oil on canvas mounted to board, Collection of Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Nickolas Muray Collection of Modern Mexican Art © Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020

Leonor Fini, Chtonian Deity Watching over the Sleep of a Young Man, 1946, Oil on Canvas, 27,9 x 41,3 cm, © Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco and Francis Naumann Gallery, New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020

Ithell Colquhoun, Tree Anatomy, 1942, oil on board, 57 x 29 cm, The Estate of the late Dr. Jeffrey Sherwin and the Sherwin Family, © Samaritans, Noise Abatement Society & Spire Healthcare