A new Basel exhibition explores how a Swiss artist spent her life challenging labels through her art.
Although Meret Oppenheim found early success with Object (1936) — a fur-covered tea cup that transformed an object of feminine refinement into a surrealist masterpiece — she resisted the celebrity it brought her, withdrawing from public life and destroying much of her work before mounting a successful comeback in the 1950s.
At a moment when overlooked 20th-century women artists are finally getting their due, the exhibition showcasing her full depth of work is a reminder “that you don’t know Meret Oppenheim,” Artnet wrote.
“Being misunderstood was the drama of her life,” the gallery curator said.
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