A provocative and dynamic movement, Surrealism sparked significant aesthetic changes and an ethical revolution in the twentieth century. Men were not the only driving force behind Surrealism and its transgressive orientation: many women played a decisive role in the movement, but their works were neglected by museums and undervalued by the art market.

The Musée de Montmartre is holding an exhibition that explores the extent and various forms of involvement of female artists and poets in the Surrealist movement. The exhibition itinerary will feature fifty of these women, along with almost 150 works.

The exhibition will present major artists, such as Claude Cahun, Toyen, Dora Maar, Lee Miller, Meret Oppenheim, and Leonora Carrington, and highlight other, less well-known, figures such as Marion Adnams, Ithell Colquhoun, Grace Pailthorpe, Jane Graverol, Suzanne Van Damme, Rita Kernn-Larsen, Franciska Clausen, Josette Exandier, and Yahne Le Toumelin.

Surrealism provided these women artists and poets with opportunities for artistic expression and creativity that probably had no equivalent in the other avant-garde movements. However, their freedom often found expression via the appropriation and development of themes initiated by the movement’s founders. They also carved out their path by freeing themselves from the Surrealist doxa. ‘They were both ‘within’ and ‘without’ the movement, close to and far from it. It is this complexity that the show hopes to capture.

More information on the event can be found here.