Out of the Ordinary: Women of the Spanish Avant-Garde (original) (raw)
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Bataillean Surrealism in Mexico: S.NOB Magazine (1962)
Journal of Surrealism and the Americas, 2020
The first translations of Georges Bataille's work available to a Mexican audience were made by writer Salvador Elizondo. After having read Les larmes d’eros (The Tears of Eros) in 1961, he founded S.NOB magazine one year later with the help of a wide group of collaborators that included Surrealist artists like Leonora Carrington and Kati Horna. S.NOB set out to oppose the closed-off nature of Mexican ‘official culture’, at the time dominated by State-promoted cultural nationalism. The magazine was part of a wider crisis of Mexican art and identity triggered in the 1950s and later known as la Ruptura (the Rupture). This new wave was concurrent with the growth of youth and mass popular culture, which found weapons of revolt against cultural nationalism in foreign cinema, music, and other emergent culture industries. This essay will argue that S.NOB articulates an avant-garde, surrealist discourse that departs from the main current associated with André Breton. Instead, it closely follows the late writings of Georges Bataille via Elizondo’s translations and interpretations of his work. It will overview the theoretical aspects of Elizondo’s reading of Bataille in order to assess images and texts of the magazine, primarily Kati Horna’s photography, Alberto Gironella’s paintings (reproduced in print), and Tomás Segovia and Fernando Arrabal’s writings. The objective is to show, through a sample analysis of the magazine’s discourse, the Bataillean construction of this particular collective’s avant-garde revolt. In it, the legacy of the surrealist movement in Mexico finds itself at a distance from the recurrent associations of Breton’s proclamations about the country, as well as the polemics derived from the "International Surrealist Exhibition" held in 1940 and the status of the “fantastic” in the history of Mexican art thereafter.
Out of the Ordinary: Contemporary Visions of the Avant-Garde was curated to bring together local artists and the academic community through a collective re-thinking of works by women artists of the Spanish and Latin American Avant-Garde. The exhibition is timed to coincide with a colloquium hosted by Spanish and Portuguese Studies, School of Modern Languages. The avant-garde was unique in fostering a synthesis of media and generated an atmosphere of artistic collaboration that forms the backbone of this project; bringing together the artistic community and the academic community. The malleability of the avant-garde aesthetic allowed artists to push boundaries and blend borders while investigating issues as diverse as desire and decomposition, hermeticism and mysticism, dark humour and play, and the idea of self-fashioning, all areas of investigation that are still pertinent to artists today. The works of the women artists in question vary greatly in style, tone and medium, a fact that demonstrates the richness of their careers, and the evolution of the avant-garde itself. From Parisian Surrealism, via the Ultraist movement and the Vallecas School in Madrid, to ‘post-Surrealism’ in Latin America, each artist had their own personal dialogue with the avant-garde. The contemporary artists were asked to create their own personal response to the women artists of the avant-garde, whether in the form of a re-imagining of a particular piece, a work inspired by a specific artist’s body of work, or their own interpretation of the energy and atmosphere of the avant-garde circles in Madrid, Paris, Barcelona, Mexico City and Buenos Aires. The results reflect the vibrancy and variety of the avant-garde aesthetic while underscoring the enduring pertinence of the themes addressed by the avant-gardists. The contemporary artists worked on their responses independently, thus creating an organic cohesion of works that both challenge and complement one another. Despite the variety of media, including painting, embroidery, photography, sculpture and an audio-visual installation, salient themes emerge, often linking works inspired by different artists. Found objects evoke both a playful juxtaposition in one work and a moribund metamorphosis in another, while questions on female sexuality and the female body are articulated in embroidery and photography. Bringing the works together, creates a tangible example of the beauty the Surrealists found in ‘the chance encounter between an umbrella and a sewing machine on a dissecting table’. Like Surrealism-founder, André Breton’s idea of the ‘communicating vessels’, Out of the Ordinary: Contemporary Visions of the Avant-Garde is intended to foster a dialogue between academics and practitioners; between generations of artists past and present, all while bringing public attention to the women artists of the avant-garde and to the local artists who have responded to their work.
The Re-enchantment of Surrealism: Remedios Varo’s Visionary Artists
Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 2018
The visionary prowess of the artist was established, in both the visual and verbal arts, by the Symbolists in fin-de-siècle France. This article asserts a continuity between the avowed spiritual dimension of their work and the visionary power of surrealist art asserted—despite strong resistance from the centre—by a group of renegade surrealists in the 1920s and beyond. To do so, it explores the representations of artists that Spanish-born Mexican painter Remedios Varo (1908–1963) depicts in her work, demonstrating how they might be better understood when analysed in relation to Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff’s (1866?–1949) esoteric aesthetics. In doing so, it reveals a neglected, postsecular trajectory in the history of Surrealism.
Journal of Surrealism and the Americas, 2023
The social and political landscape of the 1960s foregrounded complex intersections of art and politics across the Americas. During this decade, Surrealism, far from being in decline, remained actively committed to its principle of revolt and continued to be a reference for artists and writers in the region. Framing this special issue in the 1960s inscribes surrealist activity into a broader panorama of social transformation influenced by student movements, second-wave feminism, counterculture, and the rise of the New Left. On the other hand, revolutionary processes such as the Cuban Revolution (1953-1959) informed radical imaginaries in Latin America and beyond during the Cold War. As Andrea Giunta and George F. Flaherty have noted, the Cuban Revolution was a significant event "not only because it renewed notions of utopia but also because it redefined notions of international culture in the 1960s, with the revolutionary Cuban project of self-representation implemented both politically and aesthetically, in direct contradistinction to the Cold War." 1 In this context, transnational networks of cooperation and solidarity between Africa, Asia, and Latin America facilitated encounters and exchanges between activists, artists, and intellectuals from Europe and the Americas. 2 This historical framework prompts us to reconsider surrealist manifestations in the Americas having to do with local and international socio-political concerns, thus extending the surrealist vision of resistance and revolution to the 1960s. As art historian Dawn Ades has stated, Latin America was "the site for the most direct political effect Surrealism ever had." 3 Studies on the political dimension of surrealist activity in the region often point to two important moments of exchange: André Breton's visit to Mexico in 1938 when the poet, along with Diego Rivera and Leon Trotsky, wrote the "Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art"; and the series of lectures Breton delivered in Haiti in 1945. Yet artistic exchanges in the following decades offer new directions for studying the
Reconfiguring the Surrealist Gaze: Remedios Varo's Images of Women
Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 2011
A large number of surrealist theorizations were devoted to defining the role woman played in the creative process, where she held a polarized position. Within such theorizations the gaze held a key role. It was the gaze of the male poet, painter or photographer, his way of seeing and imagining femininity, which constructed the icon of the surrealist 'feminine'. This article elucidates upon how remedios Varo's paintings revise both the surrealist gaze that sets out a concrete type of female identity and the woman who abandons herself to the (masculinist) cultural conceptualization of what she is. The article presents an analysis of several of Varo's paintings that reflect upon the construction of 'femininity' through an allegorical dimension that makes it possible to understand Varo's plastic images as a direct response to surrealist theorizations on women's psyche, existence and images. Resumen Existen en el surrealismo numerosas reflexiones de carácter teórico acerca de la función que la mujer desempeña dentro del proceso creativo; una función que, no está de más decir, ha mantenido siempre un carácter ambivalente. Dentro de dichas teorizaciones, la noción de la mirada ha jugado un papel fundamental, puesto que fue precisamente la mirada del poeta, pintor o fotógrafo, su manera de ver y de imaginar la feminidad, lo que llevó en su momento a construir el icono de lo 'femenino' dentro del surrealismo. Este artículo elucida sobre cómo la pintura de Remedios Varo examina dichas concepciones teóricas sobre la mujer a la vez que, de lúdica forma, las subvierte. Por un lado, los cuadros serán entendidos como vehículos que inspeccionan tanto la mirada surrealista que establece un tipo concreto de feminidad como a la mujer que se abandona a sí misma a la conceptualización masculinista de lo que ella es. El artículo ofrece así pues en un análisis de varios cuadros que especulan sobre la construcción de la feminidad a través de una dimensión alegórica que hace posible entender las imágenes plásticas de Remedios Varo como ataque estratégico a las teorizaciones surrealistas sobre la psique de la mujer, su existencia, y su función en el proceso creativo.
Journal of Surrealism and the Americas, no. 11, 2020
The article argues that the transgressive strategies of VVV, a New York-based surrealist journal published in the early 1940s, are designed as a means to create a space of surrealist resistance against the totalitarian forces dominating its time. The periodical’s medial transgressions imply the transformation of its pages by cut-outs, paper embossing or inserted objects. Works like Marcel Duchamp’s Genre Allegory and Frederick Kiesler’s Twin Touch Test and Design Correlation thus involve readers in an interactive play and at the same time radically challenge their perception. VVV’s readers are also bewildered by the illogical confusion of language choice and a performative play with translation. This concerns especially the Latin American participation of the Chilean Mandrágora group and the surrealist poets from Peru. The multilingualism of their contributions, varying from English to Spanish and French, makes clear that the aleatory play with languages across nations and cultures is part of VVV’s surrealist strategies meant to refuse assimilation to any hegemonic cultural context. That the journal emphatically exposes its transculturality is also analyzed with regard to Aimé Césaire’s, Wifredo Lam’s and Maria Martins’s contributions in VVV that evoke the Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian spirituality of Candomblé and Santería as a form of resistance against colonialism. Altogether, the transgressive strategies illustrate the surrealist periodical’s revolutionary endeavor to develop a “total view”, as stated in its manifesto. In contrast to the totalizing and repressive world visions of colonialism and fascism, the total view of Surrealism unfolds ever new realities underneath the surface of appearances.
International Seminar Dance, Esotericism and Avant-gardes
In recent years, Art History studies have expanded their narrations by incorporating new approaches that prove that esoteric movements and modern “new spiritualities'' were relevant in artistic creation. Thus, the parallels between the hermeticism of esoteric movements and the avant-gardes have been highlighted. The links between artists and esoteric circles or currents have come to light, and there’s been increasing importance in the role that these beliefs, knowledge and practices had in the artistic conception of some creators. The International Seminar Dance, Esotericism, and Avant-gardes will offer a space to reflect from critical perspectives on different matters. How is dance placed in the avant-garde? Could the role of dance be promoted in this context in relation to the esoteric movements? What consequences would this dimension have in the consideration of women’s roles in the artistic and cultural environment? To what degree could dance, esotericism and avant-gardes manifest as spaces of syncretic and dynamic exchange? Are the esoteric circuits spaces to manifest the shadows in the hegemonic discourses? Would a study about the occult serve to unveil more inclusive historiography? ORGANIZATION. Museo Picasso Málaga. R&D Project SÍLFIDE (CSIC. PGC2018-093710-A-I00). R&D Project TRAMA (UCM. HAR2017-82394-R). SCIENTIFIC DIRECTION. Irene López Arnaiz. IH-CSIC. Raquel López Fernández. IH-CSIC. Alicia Navarro. Independent Researcher COORDINATION. Irene López Arnaiz. IH-CSIC. Paloma Rayón Alonso. Museo Picasso Málaga. Mª José Valverde. Museo Picasso Málaga.