Monday 19 July 2010

Meret Oppenheim

Meret Oppenheim is probably best known for the fur teacup and spoon, one of the most recognized of Surrealist Objects. Many of her objects and paintings created during the same period have since been lost. Her contributions to the Surrealist Movement, and associations with many members of the group began well before she turned 20 years of age.


This Surrealist object was inspired by a conversation between Oppenheim and artists Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar at a Paris cafe. Admiring Oppenheim's fur-covered bracelet, Picasso remarked that one could cover anything with fur, to which she replied, "Even this cup and saucer." Soon after, when asked by André Breton, Surrealism's leader, to participate in the first Surrealist exhibition dedicated to objects, Oppenheim bought a teacup, saucer, and spoon at a department store and covered them with the fur of a Chinese gazelle. In so doing, she transformed genteel items traditionally associated with feminine decorum into sensuous, sexually punning tableware.

Breakfast in Fur


About Breakfast in Fur



She spent twenty years trying to make paintings and artwork that would live up to this early success and suffered from anxiety and depression. It was not until many years later she understood how important materials were for her artmaking success. Instead of illustrating an idea in a painting, the symbolic mix of objects was her genius.

Paintings

Red Head, Blue Body
Meret Oppenheim. Red Head, Blue Body. 1936


An Enormously Tiny Bit of a Lot
1150684017bernimage_web2.jpg


Woman with Hat
Meret Oppenheim, Frau mit Hut (Woman with Hat)


Tete de Poete


Tragicomedy
Meret Oppenheim: Das Tragikomische, 1944


Giacometti's Ear


White Head, Blue Dress
Meret Oppenheim: White Head, Blue Dress, 1935 - Gipsum relief on wood, wood pieces, oil (Kunstmuseum Basel)











The Mirror of Genoveva


Sculptures & Designs

Miss Gardenia


Table with Bird’s Feet
Table, Traccia. Designed by Meret Oppenheim and manufactured by Simon

Table, Traccia. Designed by Meret Oppenheim and manufactured by Simon

Table, Traccia. Designed by Meret Oppenheim and manufactured by Simon


Oppenheim exhibited Ma Gouvernante, My Nurse, made of a pair of shoes bound together on a platter in a position simulating that of a nude woman on her back with her legs spread and dressed with paper frills. The shoes caused as much excitement as the fur cup.

Ma gouvernante, My Nurse, mein Kindermädchen


Bees


Squirrel



Beyond the Teacup



Project for Parkett No. 4


Le Couple


Bone Necklace


Very controversial fountain, named Tour-Fontaine, designed by Meret. Switzerland.


Him & Her


Untitled



Hermes Fountain



Meret Oppenheim, Abendkleid mit Büstenhalter-Collier


Uchrzeit Venus


Unterirdische Schleife


Tete du Poete


Necklace


Ring




Monkey Hair Shoes



Meret Oppenheim: Termitenkönigin, 1975



Meret Oppenheim: Tierköpfiger Dämon, 1961


In 1959 she created the controversial object, Cannibal Feast, for the opening of the last International Surrealist Exhibition in Paris. The sculpture included a live nude model laid out on a table and covered with food and was criticized for depicting woman as an object of consumption; Oppenheim insisted that the work was instead intended as a spring fertility rite for both men and women.


The latest work of Meret.



Photos

By Man Ray



















Self-Portrait_with_Meret_Oppenheim-.jpg image by femmefatale101







Meret Oppenheim




By Lee Miller






1 comment:

  1. See also

    http://maria-trepp.blogspot.com/2011/02/meret-oppenheim.html

    ReplyDelete

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