Female Iconoclasts: Meret Oppenheim

In our new article series, we will discuss some of the most boundary-breaking female iconoclasts of our time; women who defied social conventions in order to pursue their passion and contribute their unique vision to society. In our first edition, we covered the life and work of the late Zaha Hadid. This week, we will learn more about Meret Oppenheim, the first female member of the Surrealist circle in Paris who was close with André Breton, Max Ernst, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. While her art was associated with the Surrealist movement and Dada, she is an artist who is celebrated for always following her own vision.

An Eclectic, Surrealist Mind

When she was just 17 years old, Meret Oppenheim collaged the equation X=Hase (X=Rabbit) in her mathematics exercise book. If mathematical equations had roots, then where were the rabbits? Oppenheim wondered. Years later, when she met Surrealist artist Andre Breton, he loved this so much that he published her entire notebook. Born in Berlin in 1913, Oppenheim’s family relocated to Switzerland during the First World War, where she grew up in a progressive, intellectual environment. Her father was close friends with the great psychoanalyst Carl Jung, and his thinking about the psyche and the importance of the subconscious inspired her to consider the different layers of the human mind and to explore the unconscious collective structures of the soul. Oppenheim’s entire body of work was driven by a resistance to logic and to social norms, instead exploring the unconscious and the unexpected. For most of her life, she kept a dream journal and used her dreams as inspiration for her art.

Meret Oppenheim and the Surrealists

At the age of 18, Oppenheim moved to Paris, where she quickly fell in with the Surrealists. Though women had previously not been allowed to join the Surrealist circle, Oppenheim soon became close with the Surrealists, attending meetings and exhibiting with them at the Salon des Surindépendents. In 1933, she exhibited her first sculptural piece, the bronze Giacometti’s Ear.  She also became a model and muse to many of the Surrealists. In 1933, Man Ray photographed Oppenheim for his Erotique Voilée, which really propelled her onto the art scene as both artist and muse.

Undoubtedly her most famous work of art is her Objet (Le Déjeuner en fourrure), from 1936. For this piece, Oppenheim covered a teacup, saucer and spoon in the fur of a Chinese gazelle. These whimsical and bold everyday objects dealt with topics of female sexuality and female exploitation and repression by the opposite sex. In the 1930’s, Oppenheim also started a collaboration with fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, producing iconic works like her Fur Gloves (1936) and making a bridge between avant-garde art and fashion.

Despite her strong connection to the Surrealist movement, she broke with them after three years, feeling a strong need to stay true to herself and to explore other avenues. She always refused to be restricted to any identity, style or medium, wanting constantly to reinvent herself and to move forward. As soon as she developed an idea, she felt compelled to start on a new one immediately.

For Oppenheim, metamorphosis was a central strategy. She continuously explored dichotomies between nature and culture, masculinity and femininity, spaces, structures and genres, finding ways to allow them to morph into one another.