FEMALE SURREALISM, from 31st March to 10th September 2023, at the Musée de Montmartre (Paris)

12, rue Cortot
75018 Paris

The Musée de Montmartre is displaying an exhibition exploring the different degrees and ways women artists and poets adhered to the Surrealist movement. Fifty of them, including Jacqueline Lamba, are represented in the exhibition, with nearly 150 works on display.

Veilleuse, circa 1938. Encre de Chine et grattage sur papier cartonné, 24 x 19 cm.

A provocative and dynamic movement, surrealism triggered aesthetic renewal and ethical upheaval in the 20th century. Men were not the only ones to bring this movement and its transgressions to life: many women were major players in the movement, but they were underestimated by museums and art market. The aim of the exhibition is therefore to present major artists such as Claude Cahun, Toyen, Dora Maar, Lee Miller, Meret Oppenheim and Leonora Carrington, as well as highlighting lesser-known figures such as Marion Adnams, Ithell Colquhoun, Grace Pailthorpe, Jane Graverol, Suzanne Van Damme, Rita Kernn-Larsenn, Franciska Clausen, Josette Exandier and Yahne Le Toumelin.

Behind the sun, 1943. Huile sur toile, 61 x 66 cm.

Surrealism offered them a framework for expression and creativity that was probably unparalleled in others avant-garde movements. Yet it was often by appropriating and extending themes initiated by the movement’s ‘leaders’ that they expressed their freedom. It was also by freeing themselves from what sometimes became a surrealist doxa that they asserted themselves. ‘Against’ Surrealism is how we might define their diverse and complex positions towards the movement.

By showcasing the work of some fifty artists, visual artists, photographers and poets from all over the world, this exhibition invites us to reflect not only on the ambivalent position of women in Surrealism, but also on the ability of one of the 20th century’s major currents to integrate the feminine within it. The question mark in the title expresses the suspense that underlies this exhibition, conceived as a hypothesis rather than a demonstration.

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