Monday Inspiration: Meret Oppenheim

Meret Oppenheim, Fur Covered Object, 1936 (source)

Meret Oppenheim, My Nurse, 1936 (source)

I'm not a fan of surrealism, generally speaking. I find it overly masculine, and somewhat simplistic, and it just doesn't meet up with my values regarding art. The emphasis is wrong for me- I like to focus on the craft of making an object, the skill required to make that object, or the love of material, and that's just not the main aim of surrealism. Perhaps it's just that in the photo shopped world we live in, I find that surrealism loses it's point, when magazines are surreal impressions of women and life do surrealist works really have any impact?

These works are the exception, they appeal to me because of their obvious female vantage point, and the referencing of female sexuality by a woman artist. I think the objects themselves are beautiful, the materials are carefully chosen and worked, the finished pieces have a carefully considered constructed feel to them, and I like that in art. They appeal to the senses as well the eyes- and they seem to be urging you to touch them. That tactile quality is rare in art. Meret Oppenheim was one of the first artists to make work that provokes that sort of physical response as well as a subconscious thought, as part of it's raison d'etre.