HYBRID IN-PERSON AND ONLINE PROGRAM

Beyond Frida: Expat Twentieth-century Women Artists in Mexico

Jennie Hirsch, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, Maryland Institute College of Art

Reception 1:00 - 1:30 pm 

This lecture will focus on Mexico as a center of female artistic production in the twentieth century. Alongside native Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, we will explore several of her expat counterparts who were also active protagonists in the Surrealist movement. In particular, we will focus on the magical realism of Spanish-born Remedios Varo, the fairy-tale-like animal-human hybrid figures that feature in the paintings and writings of British-born Leonora Carrington, and the painting of French-born painter and writer, Alice Rahon, best known for her incorporation of indigenous and pre-Columbian references. These remarkable women defied the barriers of a male-dominated field, asserting their independence while paving the way for new artistic and political possibilities. They blended trauma, alchemy, and myth into a unique modernist rhetoric that continues today with Hungarian-born painter Susan Wald, whose work focuses on identity and mortality.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)