ONLINE PROGRAM

Women in and of Surrealism 

Paula Burleigh, assistant professor of art history, Allegheny College, and director of the Allegheny Art Gallery

Curator Cecilia Alemani titled the 2022 Venice Biennale The Milk of Dreams, a phrase taken from an illustrated children's book by artist Leonora Carrington (1917 - 2001, Clayton-le-Woods, UK). Carrington was effectively the patron saint of the 59th Biennale, an exhibition that boasted unprecedented gender representation statistics: nearly 90 percent of the participating artists identified as women or non-binary. In a relatively unusual gesture for a contemporary Biennale, Alemani included several historical galleries, one of which explored the contributions of women artists—like Carrington—associated with historical Surrealism beginning in the first half of the twentieth century. Alemani's Biennale was a high-profile example of a widespread, recent resurgence of interest in women's contributions to Surrealism, a movement founded in 1924 by the French writer and artist André Breton. Women occupied a particularly fraught position within the inner circle of Surrealism, given the movement's explorations of repressed desire and sexuality, which often led to objectifying representations of women's bodies. Yet women associated with the movement, such as Remedios Varo, Toyen, Leonor Fini, Dorothea Tanning, and others, made wildly inventive artworks investigating inter-species relations, myth, magic, and the occult themes that feel more relevant than ever in contemporary art and cultural context. This lecture explores the work of key women associated with historical Surrealism and traces their influence on today's art world.  

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)