Surrealist Women In Wonderland at LACMA

Like many young art history students  I went through a period of being enamored of the Surrealists.  All that automatic writing and manifestos and ants crawling on hands! At a time when I was growing up and ever more out of sync with the world around me - at once chaotic (at home) and dull (in the uniform-clad, private school world of Philadelphia) - those melting clocks and pipes that weren't pipes were a ticket out, for my mind at least.  How your imagination can soar on the wings of one of Magritte's birds -

Rene Magritte, La Grande Famille, 1963




How one's world can turn on first encountering a teacup covered in fur-

Meret Oppenheim, Object, 1936


 For many of the women of In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States, now open at LACMA,  the symbolic, self-referential vocabulary of surrealism, together with the feeling of "freedom" the artists found in North America, which had no fixed, male-dominated, European surrealist tradition,  fostered the possibility of authentic artistic expression.  Seen together, the works both excite and forge a new link in the history of art in the 20th century. 

Remedios Varo, Harmony



Not everything excites me...

Louise Bourgeois, Persistent Antagonism, 1947 - 1949
An appropriate title because this is what I feel when I see a lot of her work (do I get to keep my feminist credentials?)  Seriously, could someone please explain this woman to me? Yes I see the phallus, the tribal, the black and white. Is that it?


But overall In Wonderland is full of great work - personal, intense, beautifully executed and powerful.

Dorothea Tanning, Birthday, 1942


And while it must be recognized that Freud, with his obsession for dream analysis, as well as the work of the earlier male surrealists was perhaps an inevitable influence on these women, in turn the influence of these surrealist women on later feminist art is undeniable. And thrilling.  I had been taught that the feminist art movement of the late 60s and 70s came straight out of political upheaval and rested squarely on the competent shoulders of  Georgia O'Keefe but in seeing In Wonderland, by seeing these artists collected together, the impact of female surrealists on their feminist daughters became clear, a new link in the history.

Helen Lundberg, self portrait with landscape, 1944



47 women are represented in the fantastic exhibition space, itself a surrealist reference, with its rope demarcations that are not really demarcations.  The exhibit is laid out roughly by theme; dual figures, alchemical or scientific imagery, animal avatar, and sometimes by medium; photography, sculpture.   You will know some of the artists - Freda Kahlo, Dorothea Tanning, Remedios Varo, Louise Bourgeois, and some will probably be new to you.

 Juanita Guccione, Europa, 1939



For Kahlo fans, directly viewing some of her best known work, which I, at least, had never seen other than in reproduction, is a pleasure-

Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas, 1939

Frida Kahlo, Autorretrato con collar de espinas y colibri ( Self Portrait with Torn Necklace and Hummingbird), 1940

Though she famously said, "They thought I was a surrealist but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality" her work shines beautifully here. 

The exhibit is large, 175 works, and deeply engaging.  I had an hour to spend and it wasn't nearly enough (I'll be going back.) Click through the links above for more information on some of the featured artists and plan to spend a wonderful afternoon In Wonderland.

In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and North America is at the LosAngeles County Museum of Art through May 6th.  Recommended for those 13 and up.