Lee Bontecou American, b. 1931. Untitled 1990-2000. Welded steel, porcelain, wire mesh, silk, and wire6 1/4 × 7 1/4 ft. dia. © MCA Chicago
The Art of Seeing has to be learned.
—Marguerite Duras
The MCA – Exhibitions: Surrealism: The Conjured Life brings the viewer out of this shell we call reality. The display includes over a hundred pieces, and each of them offers countless worlds to be seen, and imagined. It is up to the observer to open their eyes to experience the creation of images that surround them. This is where the learning process begins.
The show includes artists from all over the world as well as from the U.S. and the Chicago region. Surrealism is a movement that began in the early 20th century, and erupted with the publication of André Breton The Surrealist Manifesto in 1924. This was to affect every field in the arts from painting, sculpture, film and writing. It broke with previous movements in the art world. Artists unveiled the mystery of dreams, the mind, and human emotions. Their imaginations were free and they could create infinite landscapes and counter-realities.
The collection offers a wide range of artists from the familiar names such as Ernst, Magritte, Delvaux, Matta, Miró to many contemporary artists. This is important because it shows how surrealism is not a thing of the past since its impact is still being felt.
The show was curated by Lynne Warren. As in every field, the female work is not treated as an equal, but in this case, the show includes over 30 pieces by women artists. There are works by famous artists Dorothea Tanning, Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington and the visitor will gravitate to their works. But as one walks around and sees the rest, the female experience begins to become more tangible.
There are works by Gertrude Abercrombie, a bohemian artist based in Chicago, then there is New York artist, Marisol Escobar born in France of Venezuelan descent, June Leaf the one who famously said “If you want to be a painter, paint. Don’t think, just do.”
Wangechi Mutu: That’s my death mask you’re wearing, 2004, ink, collage, and contact paper on mylar, sheet: 39 x 28 inches.
Keep walking and one finds Chicago based Gladys Nilsson who mixed domesticity, surrealism and fantasy in her works, then there’s photographer Francesca Goodman from Denver, CO, who is renowned for taking black and white photographs of herself or other women. Keep going and one discovers Margaret Wharton from Virginia who lived in Illinois, an artist who reimagined and deconstructed everyday items, mostly chairs, and made them into anything her imagination desired. There’s painter Christina Ramberg, member of the Chicago Imagists who is also in the show. Keep walking and one cannot miss the piece by American fiber artist from Ohio, Claire Zeisler who pioneered large sculptures in this medium. Another member of the Chicago Imagists, Suellen Rocca, is also in the show. Then we see the work of Evelyn Statsinger from Illinois, who converts nature into fantasy in her drawings, paintings and sculptures, as can be perceived in her work. There’s sculptor Mary Stoppert from Flint, Michigan, who never ceases to surprise the viewer.
Moving along in this surrealist journey one will eventually come upon Chicago artist and professor, Mary Lou Zelazny who thanks her immigrant Polish grandmother for opening her world to art. Also included is photographer and filmmaker, Cindy Sherman best known because in her work she is everything: model, stylist, hairdresser, photographer. She does this to reflect her surroundings, society and to assert that a woman can do, and be everything. Then we see Doris Salcedo’s work Atrabiliarios which is both disturbing and poetic. It is provoking because she tackles the issue of victims of violence in her piece by having caged shoes stitched inside, in what is their new state of being. Salcedo lives and works in Bogota, Columbia. In no particular rush one trails, and sways upon the contributions of Antonia Contro, painter Phyllis Bramson, and educator and visual artist Anne Wilson at SAIC.
Marisol (Marisol Escobar) American, b. France, 1930 Printer’s Box 1956 Painted wood, plaster, and glass16 1/2 × 21 3/4 × 2 in. © MCA Chicago
Then as one approaches Chicago designer, artist and teacher Patty Carroll´s piece Octopussy from the series Anonymous Women, one is shocked and delighted. Carroll has said about her art “My work references how women are seen in the world…” Octopussy is a clear example of how society indeed sees women. To better understand what she’s saying about women’s identities, and how she’s fighting to keep her sense of being, the viewer needs to see the rest at http://pattycarroll.com/heads/. Pioneer artist and welder, We Lee Bontecou’s large abstract sculpture is in the exhibit and no one can nor should miss this masterpiece. Kenyan artist, Wangechi Mutu painting is in the show. We also find Chicago based visual artist Anne Wilson. And not to be missed is French photographer and writer Claude Cahun whose work was very political in the way she broke gender barriers. Then there’s Ellen Lanyon, painter and printmaker from Chicago who used the word “dreamscape” to describe her work.
And whether it’s a dreamscape or a reflection of a nightmarish reality, these women have created pieces that show their genius and expertise. They have left an imprint in the history of art. One can go around many times, let our eyes wander through their work, linger on the shapes, forms, structures, images before us. Gaze at them and open our senses, and our unconscious to the visual images. What are these artists telling us about life, death, immortality, our surroundings, our innerselves? There is no right or wrong answer, just like there is no right way to approach reality. One views it, unfolds it and transforms it into our own perceptions of it. But what is required is for us to open ourselves to this experience, and see what is beyond the scenery.
One thing that is evident is that most of the women artists are white, they are from the U.S. and the Chicago region, some are teachers, some are tied to the same movement (like the Chicago Imagists), and that there are few women from other countries. However the women included in the show like Doris Salcedo, Marisol Escobar, Wangechi Mutu, We Lee Bontecou, Claude Cahun, and of course Remedios Varo through their talent make up for the lack of ethnic diversity in the exhibit. Regardless, the display shows little by little in the art world, women are breaking gender as well as racial barriers.
Cindy Sherman American, b. 1954 Untitled #188 1989 Chromogenic development print Sheet: 45 1/4 × 67 in. (114.9 × 170.2 cm); sight: 44 3/8 × 66 5/8 in. © MCA Chicago
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Leticia Cortez is a teacher, writer, activist and translator. She was born in Mexico, grew up in Chicago and has travelled the art world. She has worked at Truman College, Santa Fe High School, and presently teaches Latin American literature at St. Augustine College.
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Surrealism: The Conjured Life
From November 21, 2015 to June 5, 2016
Museum of Contemporary Art
220 East Chicago Avenue
Chicago, Illinois