In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States

Forty-eight women Surrealists, including Frida Kahlo and Louise Bourgeois, have their “extraordinary visual images” spanning a variety of media showing now at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) through May 6, 2012. 

Autorretrato con collar de espinas y colibri
(Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird), 

1940 Frida Kahlo

From the LACMA website, “North America represented a place free from European traditions for women Surrealists from the United States and Mexico, and European émigrés. While their male counterparts usually cast women as objects for their delectation, female Surrealists delved into their own subconscious and dreams, creating extraordinary visual images. Their art was primarily about identity: portraits, double portraits, self-referential images, and masquerades that demonstrate their trials and pleasures. The exhibition includes works in a variety of media dating from 1931 to 1968, and some later examples that demonstrate Surrealism's influence on the feminist movement. Iconic figures such as Louise Bourgeois, Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo, Lee Miller, Kay Sage, Dorothea Tanning, and Remedios Varo are represented, along with lesser known or newly discovered practitioners.”

Autorretrato (Self Portrait) Bridget Tichenor

 “Curators Ilene Susan Fort and Tere Arcq, of LACMA and Mexico City’s Museo de Arte Moderno, respectively, hope to provide a foil to surrealism’s long-standing gender bias—as well as explore how these artists found their greatest inspiration away from the movement’s center, in Paris,” Vogue’s Chelsea Allison says of the show.

"In Wonderland" Inspired Artist App

Jody Zellen loved the collection so much she created a free app for iPhone and iPad based on the In Wonderland exhibit. Check it out…

Get the book “In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States” By Ilene Susan Fort and Tere Arcq  It’s available in English, Spanish, and French.

"This volume features the work of 48 Mexican and U.S.-based women artists - Louise Bourgeois, Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo, Lee Miller, Kay Sage, Dorothea Tanning, and Remedios Varo are represented, along with lesser known or newly discovered practitioners, including Maya Deren, Helen Lundeberg, María Izquierdo, Jacqueline Lamba, and Janet Sobel. Their contributions to the surrealist movement span more than four decades and their work was both influential and radical in its own right. Thematically arranged, the book includes more than 250 full-color images along with several essays exploring the effects of geography and gender on the movement. It illustrates surrealism as a gateway to self-discovery, especially in North America, where women artists were freed from oppressive European traditions and the vagaries of war." 

Image 1:Autorretrato con collar de espinas y colibri (Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird), 1940, Oil on canvas, Canvas: 30 x 24 in. (76.2 x 60.96 cm) © Banco de Mexico Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo courtesy Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin. 

Image 2: Autorretrato (Self Portrait) Bridget Tichenor Undated Oil on canvas Canvas: 19 11/16 x 19 11/16 in. Private collection © Bridget Tichenor Estate