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.0Published 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.00Exhibition: Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland (22.10.2021-30.01.2022) / The Menil Collection, Houston, USA (11.03-07.08.2022) / The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (02.10.2022-05.02.2023).

In 1936, invited by André Breton to contribute to an exhibition of Surrealist objects, Meret Oppenheim decided to act upon a café conversation she had recently had with Pablo Picasso and his then-companion Dora Maar. Commenting on a fur-covered bracelet that Oppenheim had made for the designer Schiaparelli, Picasso remarked that one could cover just about anything in fur, to which Oppenheim had responded, 'Even this cup and saucer.' The resulting sculpture was Object, a teacup, saucer and spoon purchased from a department store and lined with Chinese gazelle fur. In this volume of the MoMA One on One series, an essay by Carolyn Lanchner, a former curator of painting and sculpture at MoMA, explores the subversive nature of this sensual yet disturbing work, which simultaneously attracts and repels the viewer, and of the dreamlike world of Surrealism in which Oppenheim worked.

Meret Oppenheim (1913-1985) is one of the most recognized twentieth-century artists: an almost legendary figure able to stand out on a mainly male-dominated Surrealist art scene while developing her own highly personal artistic practice. This catalogue presents her entire career, from the 1930s to her late works. It thus reveals the intense personal and creative network of relationships she nurtured with her older and often already famous peers during her time in Paris: Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Hans Arp and others are also documented in this publication through some of their most significant works. What emerges, above all, is the extent to which the artist influenced, thanks to her personality and allure, the Surrealist vocabulary in which objects turn into fetishes, oneiric and erotic fantasies intermingle, and women are seen as innocent or evil, enveloped in mysterious nature. After the war, Meret Oppenheim conducted her investigations - ranging from figurativism to abstraction, from assemblage to painting - while eluding all attempts at categorization. Her creative freedom and the extraordinary evocative power of her works have made her a key figure for many generations of artists, as can be seen here through parallels with creations by Daniel Spoerri, Birgit J�rgenssen, Robert Gober and Mona Hatoum.

"A sculptor who began working during the postwar period in a classical figurative style, Alina Szapocznikow radically reconceptualized sculpture as an imprint not only of memory but also of her own body. Though her career effectively spanned less than two decades (cut short by the artist's premature death in 1973 at age 47), Szapocznikow left behind a legacy of provocative objects that evoke Surrealism, Nouveau Râealisme, and Pop art. Her tinted polyester casts of body parts, often transformed into everyday objects like lamps or ashtrays; her poured polyurethane forms; and her elaborately constructed sculptures, which at times incorporated photographs, clothing, or car parts, all remain as wonderfully idiosyncratic and culturally resonant today as when they were first made. Well known in Poland, where her work has been highly influential since early in her career, Szapocznikow's compelling book of work is ripe for art historical reexamination. Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955-1972 offers a comprehensive overview of this important artist's work at a moment when international interest is blossoming. Spanning one of the most rich and complex periods of the 20th century, Szapocznikow's oeuvre responds to many of the ideological and artistic developments of her time through artwork that is at once fragmented and transformative, sensual and reflective, playfully realized and politically charged. Featuring over 100 works, including sculpture, drawings, and photography, the exhibition draws on loans from private and public collections, including major institutions in Poland. It is accompanied by a major publication, co published by The Museum of Modern Art and Mercatorfonds, that reflects new scholarship on Szapocznikow, contextualizing this little known artist's work for a wider audience."--Publisher's website.

Exploring the notion of tactility in dada and surrealism

"The female side of Surrealism: in the period from 1930 to the 1960s, women artists from all over the world were involved in the Surrealist movement and created a fantastic universe of images. Some 260 works of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and film serve to present the extraordinary and imaginative contributions of 36 international avant-garde women artists to one of the seminal art movements of modernism."--Page 4 de la couverture

Artists' books have emerged over the last 25 years as the quintessential contemporary art form, addressing subjects as diverse as poetry and politics, incorporating a full spectrum of artistic media and bookmaking methods, and taking every conceivable form. Female painters, sculptors, calligraphers, and printmakers, as well a growing community of hobbyists, have played a primary role in developing this new mode of artistic expression. The Book as Art presents more than 100 of the most engaging women's artist books created by major fine artists such as Meret Oppenheim, May Stevens, Kara Walker, and Renee Stout and distinguished book artists such as Susan King, Ruth Laxson, Claire Van Vliet, and Julie Chen. Culled from over 800 unique or limited-edition volumes held by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, these books explore the form as a container for ideas. Descriptions of the works are accompanied by colorful illustrations and reflections by their makers, along with essays by leading scholars and a lively introduction by the most famous book artist in our culture, best-selling author Audrey Niffenegger. The exquisitely crafted objects in the The Book as Art are sure to provoke unexpected and surprising conclusions about what constitutes a book. The Book as Art accompanies the exhibition of the same name at the Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., beginning in October 2006.