Edited with text by Nina Zimmer, Natalie Dupêcher, Anne Umland.
How the celebrated Surrealist traversed the many movements of 20th-century art with a thrilling disregard for categories and constraints
Over the course of her protean career, Meret Oppenheim produced witty, unconventional bodies of work that defy neat categorizations of medium, style and subject matter. “Nobody will give you freedom,” she stated in 1975, “you have to take it.” Her freewheeling, subversively humorous approach modeled a dynamic artistic practice in constant flux, yet held together by the singularity and force of her creative vision. Published in conjunction with the first ever major transatlantic Meret Oppenheim retrospective, and the first in the United States in over 25 years, this publication surveys work from the radically open Swiss artist’s precocious debut in 1930s Paris, the period during which her notorious fur-lined Object in MoMA’s collection was made, through her post–World War II artistic development, which included engagements with international Pop, Nouveau Réalisme and Conceptual art, and up to her death in 1985. Essays by curators from the Kunstmuseum Bern, the Menil Collection and the Museum of Modern Art critically examine the artist’s wide-ranging, wildly imaginative body of work, and her active role in shaping the narrative of her life and art, providing the context for her creative production pre– and post–World War II. Meret Oppenheim was born in 1913 and lived in Germany and Switzerland during her childhood. At the age of 18, she moved to Paris to study art, and there exhibited alongside members of the Surrealist group. Oppenheim returned to Switzerland in 1937, where she trained as a conservator at the Basel School of Design. Already a storied member of the pre–World War II avant-garde, in the last two prolific decades of her life she was embraced by a younger generation of artists for her conceptual approach to art and progressive views on gender. Oppenheim died in 1985.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Meret Oppenheim: My Exhibition'.
Offers new scholarly perspectives and a rich body of imagery (more than 160 plates), assuring that the artist’s renown will go beyond Object affording and the greatest pleasure for the reader.
The New York Times
Ted Loos
Certainly proves the artist’s versatility and changeability.
Vogue
Marley Marius
Makes a persuasive case for Oppenheim as more than just a Surrealist wunderkind...She also had a wonderful sense of humor, a sharp eye for color, and the good sense not to fade into obscurity after her early success.
Artnet
Sarah Cascone
Proves the Surrealist to be an artist of endless creativity and incredible versatility who drew, painted, and sculpted in a wide range of media and materials.
The New York Times
Roberta Smith
She maintained an unusual gift — exemplified by “Object” — for simply putting unlikely things together in convincing, somewhat unsettling ways. They could be anything — found objects, materials, mediums, motifs or styles. These conjoinings were always aided by a meticulous sense of craft...
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“My Nurse” (1936/67) is reproduced from our forever Thanksgiving staff pick, Meret Oppenheim: My Exhibition, MoMA's definitive study of the German-born Swiss artist. Monumental not only in terms of her contributions to mid-century art over many movements—from Surrealism to Pop, Nouveau Réalisme and Conceptual art—Oppenheim was also well ahead of her time in regards to concepts around gender. As this superb 184-page catalog makes clear, there has always been much more to her work than a furry teacup. continue to blog
“My Nurse” (1936/67) is reproduced from our forever Thanksgiving staff pick, Meret Oppenheim: My Exhibition, MoMA's definitive study of the German-born Swiss artist. Monumental not only in terms of her contributions to mid-century art over many movements—from Surrealism to Pop, Nouveau Réalisme and Conceptual art—Oppenheim was also well ahead of her time in regards to concepts around gender. As this superb 184-page catalog makes clear, there has always been much more to her work than a furry teacup. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9 x 10.5 in. / 184 pgs / 250 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $58 ISBN: 9781633451292 PUBLISHER: The Museum of Modern Art, New York AVAILABLE: 11/30/2021 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Edited with text by Nina Zimmer, Natalie Dupêcher, Anne Umland.
How the celebrated Surrealist traversed the many movements of 20th-century art with a thrilling disregard for categories and constraints
Over the course of her protean career, Meret Oppenheim produced witty, unconventional bodies of work that defy neat categorizations of medium, style and subject matter. “Nobody will give you freedom,” she stated in 1975, “you have to take it.” Her freewheeling, subversively humorous approach modeled a dynamic artistic practice in constant flux, yet held together by the singularity and force of her creative vision.
Published in conjunction with the first ever major transatlantic Meret Oppenheim retrospective, and the first in the United States in over 25 years, this publication surveys work from the radically open Swiss artist’s precocious debut in 1930s Paris, the period during which her notorious fur-lined Object in MoMA’s collection was made, through her post–World War II artistic development, which included engagements with international Pop, Nouveau Réalisme and Conceptual art, and up to her death in 1985. Essays by curators from the Kunstmuseum Bern, the Menil Collection and the Museum of Modern Art critically examine the artist’s wide-ranging, wildly imaginative body of work, and her active role in shaping the narrative of her life and art, providing the context for her creative production pre– and post–World War II.
Meret Oppenheim was born in 1913 and lived in Germany and Switzerland during her childhood. At the age of 18, she moved to Paris to study art, and there exhibited alongside members of the Surrealist group. Oppenheim returned to Switzerland in 1937, where she trained as a conservator at the Basel School of Design. Already a storied member of the pre–World War II avant-garde, in the last two prolific decades of her life she was embraced by a younger generation of artists for her conceptual approach to art and progressive views on gender. Oppenheim died in 1985.
