Meret Oppenheim

Born in 1913 in Berlin - Charlottenburg, remembered mainly for her Surrealist work and in particular her famous  "Fur lined tea cup". ( object in fur ) produced in 1936 and still remains an icon of the Surrealist movement.

Meret studied  in Basle at the Kunstgewerbeschule and also in Paris at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, participating in Surrealist exhibitions and exhibiting her work at the young age of 20 years.

Much of her less well-known work involved  not only drawings, paintings, objects, collages and sculptures but also her writings and dream notations as well as her unusual and fantastical jewellery. Following her success with her famous  piece ( fur lined tea cup ) Meret declined into a long period of depression and came out of this, stating......“ freedom is not given to you, you have to take it.“

Her free spirited, uninhibited ways combined with her youth and beauty all contributed to the creation of an image of a beautiful and creative woman whom all men desired. Meret spent much of her free time in Galleries and cafe’s in Paris, where she met Giacometti, Hans Arp, and Max Ernst, Giacometti and Arp becoming her first Artistic mentors and Ernst and Man Ray her intimate companions.

Meret’s artistic method and creative periods depicted themes such as metamorphoses between sexes, between human being and animal, nature and civilization, and the search for identity, with her much appraised early work and her less well known poetic work.

Her works erased borders between dream and reality, female and male, man and animal, she gave objects, such as a pair of shoes a new life, tantalizing our fantasy and unconscious. Her non conformist attitude and criticism towards alloted gender roles made her a central figure for many generations of female artists.

In 1982 she was honoured with the Art Prize of the City of Berlin, shortly before her death she became a member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts. Meret Oppenheim died in Basel in 1985.