Review
Miquel Barceló
12.12.2012 – 10.03.2013
Meret Oppenheim
21.03. – 14.07.2013
Meret Oppenheim (1913–1985) Is one of the most important and individual artists of the twentieth century. Even while she was still young, Breakfast in Fur – a cup clothed in fur – turned the scandal-ridden muse into a legend and ensured her position as the leading exponent of French Surrealism. Her diverse and independent oeuvre encompassed painting, sculpture, poetry and design, eschewing stylistic classifications and stringent lines of development. Oppenheim’s interest was for the transformation blurring the demarcations between the sexes, between man and animal, nature and culture, dream and reality. Her inspiration was mobilised as much by myths, games and dreams as it was by literary sources and the writings of C.G. Jung. In the nineteen-seventies Oppenheim, who fought against socially assigned gender roles, became a central identification figure in feminism. Her credo was “Freedom isn’t given, it has to be taken“ .
In 2013, for Oppenheim’s hundredth birthday, the Vienna Kunstforum is presenting the first posthumous in Austria retrospective ever devoted to this fascinating artistic personality. Subsequently the exhibition will be shown in the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin.
Curator: Heike Eipeldauer
Review
Jürgen Messensee
04.09. – 06.10.2013