We are Completely Free – Women Artists and Surrealism presents the work of a group of women artists who, from the 1920s onwards, became involved to a greater or lesser degree in Surrealism, a movement historically associated with men. Museo Picasso Málaga has brought together for the occasion works by eighteen spirited and rebellious female artists who were, in several cases, overshadowed by their male partners. The exhibition aims to give back the focus they deserve to a group of women artists whose work stood out on the Surrealist landscape and some of whom have perhaps had to wait too long to gain major international recognition: Eileen Agar, Claude Cahun, Leonora Carrington, Germaine Dulac, Leonor Fini, Valentine Hugo, Frida Kahlo, Dora Maar, Maruja Mallo, Lee Miller, Nadja, Meret Oppenheim, Kay Sage, Ángeles Santos, Dorothea Tanning, Toyen, Remedios Varo and Unica Zürn.
The exhibition curator, José Jiménez, professor of aesthetics and art theory at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, tells us that the choice of artists “is not a separatist option, but rather a recovery task” and also that “it is not a closed list; it is open to new considerations and inclusions. The selection is aimed at giving consistency to the construction of the exhibition narrative, with the focus on the artistic quality of the works and on the fact that these women exercised active independence as creative, thinking beings, in a quest for complete freedom”. Their individuality and personality is conveyed in the more than 124 works brought together for the show, which include paintings, drawings, sculptures, collages, photographs and films.
(Source: Museo Picasso Málaga)