Women Surrealists: A Case For Surrealism’s Challenge of Gender Identity and Sexuality
By Lori Stranger
Surrealism, as a movement, was not only concerned with artistic expression, but can be seen as a way of life, equally concerned with politics and perceptions of the world. From its inception, Surrealism challenged traditional identity constructions by proposing a liberation of the ‘id’ from the ‘ego’ and ‘superego’ restraints. The Surrealists’ radical anti-establishment views, and their rejection of the church and family institution, challenged traditional social order and prescribed gender roles. It is no surprise, therefore, that by the 1930s, Surrealism experienced an influx of female artists. Robert Short even proclaimed: “no one comparable movement outside specifically feminist organisations has had such a high proportion of active women participants.”
It is Claude Cahun who demonstrates the most radical challenge to gender paradigms in her advocacy of fluid identity. Cahun’s 1927 photographic self-portrait titled I am in training, don’t kiss me (Fig. 1) presents an androgynous figure seated in a full body leotard. The leotard, as well as the presence of weights, indicates the sitter’s typically masculine profession as a weight lifter or circus performer. Their cropped hair and flat chest further reinforces the viewer’s expectation of a man. However, their static cross-legged position, and the fact that the weights are resting inactively on their lap, undermines any sense of stereotypical masculine strength. Emblazoned on their chest, provocatively framed by two black dots suggesting nipples, is a command: I am in training, don’t kiss me. Cahun’s inactivity suggests this training is more concerned with identity, rather than masculine physicality. For this reason, Tirza True Latimer interprets Cahun as “training to become a woman…or to un-become one.” For an artist who declared: “neuter is the only gender that always suits me”, this notion of un-becoming a woman appears entirely appropriate. Like the pantomime their make-up evokes, Cahun viewed identity as a performing mask, changeable at will.
Claude Cahun, I am in training, don't kiss me, 1927, photograph.
Within the misogynistic climate of 1930s France, the Surrealists were politically active, often criticising women’s oppressed domestic roles. The 1929 stock market crash and Great Depression had led to the French government's renewed emphasis on traditional family values, particularly concerning women’s role in the home. What’s more, this period saw a rise of Far-Right sentiments, including increased anti birth-control propaganda and accusations that childless women were contributing to “race suicide”. The Surrealists’ support for birth control and divorce starkly opposed these attitudes, which ultimately encouraged women into domesticity. Even Whitney Chadwick (writer of Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement, a title which immediately suggests women artists’ incompatibility with the movement), concedes that the female Surrealists she interviewed “spoke positively of the support and encouragement they received from Breton and other Surrealists” which “provided a sympathetic milieu” for female artistic creation. Surrealism’s radical liberalism and anti-establishment principles greatly helped to challenge traditional gender identity. It also provided a supportive haven for nonconformist women who rejected traditional female norms of domesticity.
Dorothea Tanning exemplifies Surrealism’s rejection of traditional domesticity. Although she was married to fellow Surrealist painter Max Ernst, Tanning preferred not to be called his wife, and was grateful he never addressed her as such. She rejected motherhood, commenting in her autobiography: “I’m very much against the arrangement of procreation.” Her 1946 painting Maternity (Fig. 2) further reveals her negative view of motherhood. Maternity represents a lone mother and child within a barren dreamscape which endlessly recedes into the distance. Dark, stormy clouds contribute to the vast wasteland’s oppressive atmosphere. The representation of mother and child inevitably calls to mind the virtuous Virgin Mary and Christ child. Tanning’s vision of motherhood, however, is bereft of virtue, instead emphasizing her isolation. Tanning presents a disturbing vision of childbirth, as she intricately details the mother’s disheveled white nightdress. Its shredded fabric notably accumulates around her womb. The distorted uterine shaped creature in the far-left background further represents an ever-present reminder of the pain of childbirth. Moreover, just as childbirth is represented as a harrowing affair, motherhood appears similarly draining. The birthed child’s angry expression, in combination with its rosy complexion, contrasts with the mother’s hallowed cheeks and deathly flesh tones. The unhappy child may be seen as parasitically clinging to the mother, draining her life.
Dorothea Tanning, Maternity, 1946, oil on canvas
Surrealism was also radical in its challenge of traditional attitudes against women’s authority. In the 1930s, Paris witnessed a resurgence of anti-woman hysteria in light of the Papin Sisters and the Nozière scandal.[1]Amidst this outpouring of hostile media, the Surrealists were the only group which defended these abused women.[2] Nevertheless, it should also be pointed out that the Surrealists admired the sadistic writings of Marquis de Sade—even leading Breton to declare: “Sade is Surrealist in sadism.”[3] Although de Sade advocated for sexual perversity and extreme violence towards women, Angela Carter’s 1978 book The Sadeian Woman and the Ideology of Pornography observes that he afforded women equal sexual dominance and authority over men. In other words, de Sade may have been perverse, but not sexist. In 1944, Argentinian surrealist painter Leonor Fini illustrated scenes from de Sade’s novel Juliette. Chadwick interprets that “Fini uses Juliette as a vehicle for the frank expression of woman’s sexual power and dominance.” In her life, Fini demanded independent autonomy, refusing to marry, and instead living with two lovers. Her 1938 painting Femme en armure (Fig. 3) illustrates her rejection of traditional gender roles. The half-length portrait depicts a woman in an ambiguous dark setting. Her wild, untamed mass of black hair, and sinister corset-like metal armour, distinguish her as a fierce female warrior. Her strong pose and spread left leg illustrate her sexual confidence and authority. For this reason, one might conclude that Simone de Beauvoir’s criticism that Breton (and thereby Surrealism as a whole) placed women in a pacified role overlooks how active women Surrealist artists really were within the movement. Perhaps Beauvoir also overlooks Surrealism’s evolving nature. In his 1924 Manifesto, Breton declared: “we shall be masters of ourselves, masters of women, and of love, too.” However, by 1947, his views appeared to have changed, as he argued that time had come “to make the ideas of women prevail at the expense of those of men.”
Leonor Fini, Femme en armure, 1938, oil on canvas.
The Surrealists sought to eradicate established social paradigms and radically challenge traditional ideas about gender and identity. Women Surrealists were not limited to anti-establishment views or opposing traditional gender roles. Despite male Surrealists’ demeaning representations of women, Surrealism nevertheless provided a liberal environment for women artists to craft their own identities. Compared to their male counterparts, these artists produced a greater number of self-portraits, perhaps illustrating their more reflective engagement with Surrealism in order to examine their own identities, as well as the social expectations superimposed upon them.
Bibliography
Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. Translated by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. London: Jonathan Cape, 2009.
Breton, André. Manifestoes of Surrealism. Translated by Richard Seaver and Helen R. Lane. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1972.
Cahun, Claude. Disavowals: Or Cancelled Confessions, (1930). Translated by Susan de Muth. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008.
Carter, Angela, The Sadeian Woman: An Exercise in Cultural History. London: Virago Press, 1979.
Chadwick, Whitney. Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement. London: Thames and Hudson, 1985.
Don’t Kiss Me: The Art of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore. Edited by Louise Downie. London: Tate Publishing, 2006.
Matthews, J. H. The Surrealist Mind. Toronto: Susquehanna University Press, 1991.
Short, Robert. Dada and Surrealism. New York: Octopus, 1980.
Surrealist Women: An International Anthology. Edited by Penelope Rosemont. London: Athlone Press, 1998.
Tanning, Dorothea. Between Lives: An Artist and Her World. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001.