Susana Wald: Las Mujeres De/The Wives

Independent 20th Century

September 5 – 8, 2024

"The series started as a joke. I didn't know what I was painting until years later” - Susana Wald

As is so often the case with the early women Surrealists, they were first seen as the muses and/or wives of the artists. Many of the most well-known Surrealist women - and almost every artist related to the avant-garde of the 20th century- became involved with the movement through their personal relationships. Leonora Carrington and Dorothea Tanning became involved with Surrealism through Max Ernst and Remedios Varo through the Surrealist poet Benjamin Péret. Meret Oppenheim and Lee Miller both worked with Man Ray, in addition to making their own Surrealist works. This was also the case for Susana Wald and her life partner, the Chilean poet and artist Ludwig Zeller. Faced with this historical dynamic, artists found different strategies to reclaim their identities. Leonora Carrington already said it in her iconic phrase, "I didn’t have time to be anyone’s muse... I was too busy rebelling [...] and learning to be an artist." Wald begins her Mujeres de (The Wives of) in the early 80s as what she thought was a very funny joke: they are women turned into furniture, inspired by the trades of their male partners. Gardeners, painters, sculptors, fishermen, collectors –they are the belongings of their all-important husbands. From a surrealist imaginary that mixes humor and transformation of the body, this series provides a key imaginary for the representation of the female body made by women artists.

Gallery hours are Monday through Wednesday, 1 – 6 pm, and by appointment.

For inquires, please contact marisa@marisanewman.com