Meret Oppenheim 1913-1985

Exhibitions
Works
  • Meret Oppenheim, Untitled, ca. 1950s
    Untitled, ca. 1950s
  • Meret Oppenheim, Ohne Titel, 1985
    Ohne Titel, 1985
  • Meret Oppenheim, Tisch für Jacqueline, 1985
    Tisch für Jacqueline, 1985
  • Meret Oppenheim, Tundra, 1985
    Tundra, 1985
  • Meret Oppenheim, Der See der Hermaphroditen, 1984 - 1985
    Der See der Hermaphroditen, 1984 - 1985
  • Meret Oppenheim, Stadtsilhouette, davor tote Bäume , 1984
    Stadtsilhouette, davor tote Bäume , 1984
  • Meret Oppenheim, Steinzeitliche Spuren , 1984
    Steinzeitliche Spuren , 1984
  • Meret Oppenheim, Panthermännchen , 1981
    Panthermännchen , 1981
  • Meret Oppenheim, Japanischer Garten , 1976-77
    Japanischer Garten , 1976-77
  • Meret Oppenheim, Mann im Nebel , 1975
    Mann im Nebel , 1975
  • Meret Oppenheim, Gesicht nach links schauend , 1960
    Gesicht nach links schauend , 1960
  • Meret Oppenheim, Profil und Ausrufzeichen, 1960
    Profil und Ausrufzeichen, 1960
  • Meret Oppenheim, Zwei Gesichter, 1960
    Zwei Gesichter, 1960
  • Meret Oppenheim, Schneebeeren, 1959
    Schneebeeren, 1959
  • Meret Oppenheim, Qualle, 1958
    Qualle, 1958
  • Meret Oppenheim, Souvenir de l'âge de la pierre, 1956
    Souvenir de l'âge de la pierre, 1956
  • Meret Oppenheim, Raupe in Metamorphose, 1954
    Raupe in Metamorphose, 1954
  • Meret Oppenheim, Mädchen am Seeufer, 1932
    Mädchen am Seeufer, 1932
  • Meret Oppenheim, Fleurs dans le vase, 1926-27
    Fleurs dans le vase, 1926-27
Overview
Meret Oppenheim (1913 - 1985) was born in Berlin, Germany and died in Basel, Switzerland. She was an artistic pioneer, icon, painter, sculptor, designer, model, muse—in essence, a visionary. At the age of 18 she moved to Paris to study art at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. It was in the Ville Lumière that she became friendly with established artists living in the city, from Alberto Giacometti to Max Ernst, from Jean Arp to Pablo Picasso. 
Oppenheim managed to gain a foothold quickly. Not only did she become the first female member of the Surrealists, she even contributed to the Surrealist Manifesto published by André Breton in 1924 when he incorporated her famous equation X = Rabbit, which she made as an 11 year old girl. Her place at the epicenter of the 20th century’s most influential moments was solidified by appearing in Breton’s first exhibition on Surrealism in 1936 at Galerie Ratton, Paris.The piece she showcased, Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure), would be purchased by Alfred H. Barr Jr. for the MoMA New York later that year when the artist was only 23. Meret Oppenheim’s eclectic body of work is rooted firmly in her own fantastical world of the subconscious as manifested into physical reality. In her paintings, drawings, sculptures, photography, design objects, and poetry, Oppenheim speaks to the alienation of man as put forth through the ideas of psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Encouraged by her psychoanalyst father, Oppenheim started documenting her dreams as a teenager and created her first aphoristic drawings.
Biography
In January 1975 Oppenheim received the 1974 Art Award of the City of Basel where she held a significant speech on the topic of “female artists”, and in 1982 the Grand Award of the City of Berlin. That same year she became part of the Academy of Arts, Berlin. Despite the challenges her gender posed in the early half of the 20th century, Oppenheim had a prolific, lifelong career with her first retrospective in 1967 at Moderna Museet Stockholm, Sweden, followed by appearances in Harald Szeemann’s documenta 7 in 1982 and in 1984 by an important retrospective with stations in Bern, Paris, Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich, as well as, after her death, in the 1986 Venice Biennale. Since, there have been several retrospective exhibitions including those at the Guggenheim Museum, New York in 1996, and at the Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, in 2013. A new retrospective is programmed to start in October 2021 at the Kunstmuseum Bern, then traveling to the Menil Collection Houston as of March 2022 and finally arriving at the MoMA New York in October 2022.
 
Events