Women Surrealists?

I've always had a fascination in the Surrealist movement. What was their real agenda? How could they claim to be accessing the subconscious spontaneously, when they were clearly trying to access the subconscious?

But what I find really odd are the handful of women artists working within a movement that was so clearly misogynist. One of the main Surrealist ambitions was for men to access their inner-most fantasies - which tended to result in the depiction of women as objectified, sexual beings, controlled both physically and psychologically. And they were often pretty creepy. Like Hans Bellmer's Dolls (below) or Magritte's Face (above):

So where was the space for a woman artist in this men's club?

If Surrealist paintings were all about using the female as a muse and a manifestation of their inner-psyche, what were women supposed to paint? Other women? Men? (That probably wasn't an option.) Instead, many created self-portraits. Self-portraits that adhered to the 'rules' of the movement, but perhaps had a different game in mind.

Here's an example:

This is a self-portrait of Dorothea Tanning (Max Ernst's wife). She's very much the entrapped female, breasts out, imprisoned in her prickly costume - you could easily read this from a traditional Surrealist view point, as painted by a man.

But then there's lots here to suggest a different reading. That she's presented herself as an empowered, self-assured woman, at once both entrapped, yet in control. She looks straight out at the viewer, her hand rests on a door handle, held wide open, whilst a mystical winged creature gently contacts her leg, with the option of flying away. Sure, there's much confusion and darkness here (as you'd probably imagine women felt, working within such a movement), but i think it's balanced with a sense of optimism and female strength that's a rare feature of many Surrealist works.

As Leonora Carrington (another female Surrealist) has suggested, women artists like herself "had masks on, the mask of the muse."

Kicking off with a Hockney

Hands-up, I confess that this is a recycled post, but I thought it would be a good idea to bring my past reviews over here to get going. This was written after a trip to the Hockney Exhibition at the portrait gallery last year:

Hockney's works aren't just about physical observations of the individual, but are in fact highly evocative psychological studies of subjects, their relationships with one another and with Hockney himself. Rather than being unsubtle and cold (which what I thought on initial viewing), they're in fact quite intriguing. One that I particularly fell for was this above, "My parents".

It's strange, on first view I thought that this was an unhappy depiction of dysfunctional family life. And then I realised that in fact it's just an honest portrayal of an elderly couple and the differing relationship he has with each parent. His mother intently looks at her son at work and his father, whilst happy to pose, keeps himself occupied with an art journal. Their surroundings are seemingly sparce, but there's bright sunlight shining on both parents - the warmth of their skin tones and the bright tulips give a positivity to the piece.

When I came home I did a little more reading about Hockney and found a review claiming, "He can see deeper than the skin". Hockney would never paint a portrait without getting to know the individual first - he doesn't feel he can be true to the subject unless he has spoken to and understands the individuals. Perhaps you need to stand in front of the works themselves to fully realise this. But when you do, it's quite a fantastic experience.

Where it all started

I've been meaning to start this blog for a good while now. A year and a half, to be exact. It all started on Let's See What Happens. It was a communal blog where people pledged to make changes in their lives. One of my pledges was to appreciate a piece of art each day. And it went pretty well for a short time, but then I got lazy and stopped.

The thing is, from the few reviews I wrote, I began to realise how much I love talking about art. Not in a academic way, but in a way that's accessible to everyone. Hopefully. There are so many interesting ideas and interpretations of art out there which are, too often than not, restricted to the world of academia. And I think that's a real shame.

So, the purpose of this blog is quite simply to talk about interesting stuff to do with art. Some of it might be other peoples' ideas/theories, some if it might be my own personal interpretations, but hopefully all of it will be nice to know.

The ideal outcome? You see a work from this blog in a gallery one day and say to whoever you're with, "Did you know that this painting is..." and your friend says, "Wow, that's really interesting. I never thought about it like that."