Gradiva's Mirror: Reflections on Women, Surrealism and Art History [Paperback]

Betty Ann Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2002 | ISBN-10: 1877675377 | ISBN-13: 978-1877675379

Gradiva's Mirror is a work of scholarly yet creative nonfiction that weaves autobiographical reflections into art historical analyses of paintings, sculptures, photographs, and texts created by eleven women associated with Surrealism. The women whose work is discussed are: Claude Cahun, Leonora Carrington, Gala Dali, Frida Kahlo, Valentine Hugo, Maria Izquierdo, Jacqueline Lamba, Simone Mareuil, Lee Miller, Alice Rahon and Remedios Varo. The title of the book comes from two central Surrealist icons: Gradiva, the mythic female figure created by German novelist Wilhelm Jensen, analyzed by Sigmund Freud, and adopted by André Breton as a pivotal symbol; and the mirror, employed by the Surrealists as an emblem of reflection and receptivity (rather than as a reference to human vanity.)

Gradiva’s Mirror is structured as a chronological "triptych." The three sections focus on the decades following: 1929, the year women began to have a significant presence in Parisian Surrealism; 1939, the year World War II was declared and many European artists fled to the Americas in order to avoid persecution by Hitler; and 1949, the year several Surrealist women who had settled in Mexico City began sustained periods of mature and independent work. Each section of the book begins with a description of the nature of Surrealism at that time and concludes with an imagined conversation between the author and the women featured in that section. The introduction to Gradiva’s Mirror is written by Gloria Orenstein, renowned ecofeminist and scholar, who has published extensively on the women of Surrealism.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Brown's Gradiva's Mirror is a questioning, questing exploration of twelve artists' lives interwoven with imagined conversations with them... -- Tee A. Corinne, FARB: Feminist Art Books Bulletin, March 2002

[Brown] reclaims female surrealists from neglect and obscurity, and in this mission she succeeds with subversive imagination and careful investigation. -- Alicia Faxon, Art New England, August/September 2002

About the Author

Betty Ann Brown is an art historian, critic and curator with degrees in art history from Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico. She is a Professor in the Art Department of California State University Northridge, where she currently serves as Assistant Department Chair. Her previous books include: Expanding Circles, Women, Art & Community (Midmarch Arts Press, 1996) and Exposures, Women & Their Art, co-authored with Arlene Raven (NewSage Press, 1991). Brown has been active in women's art organizations, serving as president of the Board of the Los Angeles Woman's Building and of the Southern California Women's Caucus for Art, as well as organizing and serving as program chair for several major conferences.

Product Details

• Paperback: 302 pages
• Publisher: Midmarch Arts Pr (February 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1877675377
• ISBN-13: 978-1877675379
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,453,545 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)