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Showing posts from December, 2020

Surrealist Objects at MoMA with Wanda and Derek

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A teacup with fur in it  This teacup with fur in it is supposed to be the quintessential Surrealist object. The artist, Meret Oppenheim, is said to have transformed a common, utilitarian item into something "simultaneously disturbing, attractive and sexually charged." So fine with the disturbing. I'm disturbed thinking about drinking tea out of this thing and winding up with a hairball. Anybody who has had a cat will right now be conjuring up memories of thunderous "Bootsie has a hairball" barf howls.  If I squint I can see the "attractive." I mean, not in any sort of minimalist way, but when I picture this teacup and saucer and spoon nestled amongst golden things on an elaborate table strewn with grapes and velvet and surrounded by masked burlesque dancers covered in glitter... I mean, you can also almost get to "sexually charged." This whole surrealist art movement rose up in the 1930s. Everybody was captivated by the same idea -- that cert