My muses for today are the female surrealists, Dorothea Tanning, Meret Oppenheim and Remedios Vara who had to find a voice in surrealism where the men often made women the object of desire in their creations. It took Oppenheim sometime to realise her artistic freedom, for although she had much success with her Fur Lined teacup she went through a creative crisis before she became fully confident (sound familiar any women writer/artists out there??).
For Meret Oppenheim
Your Breakfast in Fur
Where an actual cup is lined with a fell
To me it says so much about
Domesticity and glamour
And women confined to their role
And yet art historians say the stir was caused by
Two things unconnected
Placed side by side.
How little do some think about
The inner lives of women
Drawing rooms
And making tea
Or the wearing of furs
The primal origins of both
Man and woman
And history.
Or am I reading too much into your
Gesture and would I make you laugh
If I said today you are my muse.
For Dorothy Tanning
Your Guardian Angels are the stuff of nightmares
But only on closer inspection
Exploring parasomnia is your thing
And yet the biggest nightmare of all
Not to be able to paint and write
And say what you need to, that you have avoided.
For Remedios Vara
I love your giant cats and windmills
And picture after picture
Delights me
You would have been a great fantasy writer
And I have so many ideas when I see your images
I show them to my daughter and she laughs for
here is an artist she can relate to.
© June Perkins, all rights reserved.
Some Interesting Links
This link has general stuff about surrealism, great for the novice.
http://www.noma.org/educationguides/Surreal.pdf
This has a lot about Oppenheim
http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=141606
Varo’s Paintings- love this link
June Paisa Perkins 