In Wonderland

Wednesday night my girlfriend & I went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts
for little mid-week fun & checked out the exhibit,
In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico & the United States. 

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members.



North America represented a place free from European traditions for women Surrealists from the United States and Mexico, and European émigrés. While their male counterparts usually cast women as objects for their delectation, female Surrealists delved into their own subconscious and dreams, creating extraordinary visual images. Their art was primarily about identity: portraits, double portraits, self-referential images, and masquerades that demonstrate their trials and pleasures. The exhibition includes works in a variety of media dating from 1931 to 1968, and some later examples that demonstrate Surrealism's influence on the feminist movement. Iconic figures such as Louise Bourgeois, Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo, Lee Miller, Kay Sage, Dorothea Tanning, and Remedios Varo are represented, along with lesser known or newly discovered practitioners.


 I have always wanted to see Chris Burden's Urban Lights @ night!
We enjoyed a small plate & a drink before heading into the exhibit. If you can make it out there before the end of May, do so! Pretty neat stuff.


The artists featured
 California Women's fashion made its strongest mark in swimwear. Two of that industry's giants were located in Southern California, Cole of California & Catalina.   Bathing suit designs reflected playful styles of the era.  By the late 1940's more curvaceous female body had emerged as the fashionable ideal, and swimsuits became more heavily constructed & dress like, as in the cheerful polka-dot swimsuit & jacket by Cole.

The orange cotton pantsuit is Levi Strauss & Co. circa 1955.
 Green Dress with detachable skirt made w/ swim bottoms underneath by Cole of California 1944.
Usually worn for cocktails by the pool.


 The necklace reads: "So long as men can breath or eyes can see so long lives this and this gives life to thee"
Interesting: Read.

Dorothea Tanning painted this self portrait on her 32nd birthday in 1942. The open doorways may represent stages of development Tanning had already experienced or those yet to come. The lemur at the bottom could represent ghosts or spirits as in Roman Mythology because of their reflective eyes and nocturnal habits.


Have a wonderful weekend. If you live in the area, try and check out this exhibit...it was pretty interesting. :)




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