WHITNEY CHADWICK

Description (Front Flap)

'The cult of the mythical woman ... lies at the heart of the Surrealist credo.' - Roger Shattuck

No artistic movement since the nineteenth century has celebrated the idea of Woman as passionately as did Surrealism during the 1920s and 1930s; none has championed the creativity of women as wholeheartedly. The image of Woman - as muse, as captivating child-woman, as sorceress, as Sadeian queen - dominates Surrealist poetry and painting.

Whitney Chadwick's book examines in detail the lives and work of the women who exhibited with the Surrealists in the great international exhibitions of the 1930s and 1940s. Young, beautiful and daring, women like:

Eileen Agar

Leonora Carrington

Leonor Fini

Frida Kahlo

Meret Oppenheim

Kay Sage

Dorothea Tanning

Toyen

They became an embodiment of their age as they struggled toward artistic maturity and their own 'liberation of the spirit' in the context of the Surrealist Revolution. Their individual stories are presented here against the historical background of the turbulent decade of the 1930s and the war that forced Surrealism into exile in New York and Mexico. This is the first publication in English to document the actual contributions women made to the Surrealist movement.

Whitney Chadwick spent 10 years on original research, interviewing and corresponding with many of the protagonists. Her book contains extracts from letters, unpublished autobiographies, stories and poems, more than 200 illustrations, including reproductions of many paintings and drawings, photographic portraits by Man Ray, Imogen Cunningham, Manuel Alvarez Bravo and others, as well as bibliographies and comprehensive scholarly appendices.

With 220 illustrations, 20 in colour.

WHITNEY CHADWICK (BACK FLAP)

Whitney Chadwick, an art historian specializing in twentieth-century European and American art, graduated from Middlebury College in 1965 with a degree in Fine Arts, and received a doctorate in art history from the Pennsylvania State University. Her book Myth in Surrealist Painting, 1929-30 appeared in 1980; she has contributed numerous articles on Surrealism to various magazines, among them Art Bulletin, Art Forum and Art International. She has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California at Berkeley. Married to the painter Robert Bechtle, she currently lives in San Francisco and is Professor of Art at San Francisco State University.

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SOME OF THE LESSER KNOWN FEMALE SURREALISTS (BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES)

More on the well-known, or better-known, female Surrealists, have links above. What makes this book even more appealing is that it includes info and pictures of the lesser-known Surrealists. Some of them are below but for more info buy the book!

EMMY BRIDGWATER

English painter (1906-99). Born in Birmingham. Studied fine arts in Birmingham, Oxford and at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London. Exhibited in Birmingham with the Birmingham Group, including Conroy Maddox and John Melville. Through them she met E.L.T. Mesens and other members of the London Surrealist Group in 1940. Contributed automatic poems and drawings to the reviews Arson and Free Union Libres. Lived for many years in London. Exhibition: Paris (1947).

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ITHELL COLQUHOUN

English painter and writer (1906-1988). Born in Assam, India. Educated at Cheltenham College and the Slade School of Art, but was largely self-taught. After joining the English Surrealist Group in 1939 and participating in the Living Art in England exhibition, she contributed to the London Bulletin, but refused in 1940 to abandon her work on occultism and left the group. She experimented with automatism, decalcomania, sfumage, frottage, and collage, publishing the results of her investigations in "The Matic Stain" (Enquiry, 1949). First one-woman exhibition at the Cheltenham Municipal Gallery in 1936; exhibitions since then included a retrospective in 1976 at the Newtn Orion Galleries in Cornwall. She is the author of a Surrealist occult novel, The Goose of Hermogenes, published in 1961 by Peter Owen Ltd., travel books on Cornwall and Ireland, and several volumes of poetry. In later life she lived in Cornwall.

Whitney Chadwick’s Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement is more than a historical survey—it is a celebration of the creativity, resilience, and daring of women artists who challenged conventions and carved their place in a male-dominated art world. Each chapter brings the reader closer to the lives behind the canvas, revealing the ambitions, struggles, and triumphs of these pioneering women.

Chadwick’s research is meticulous, combining archival materials, personal letters, and rare interviews to present an intimate portrait of artists like Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning, and Meret Oppenheim (she though refused to be interviewed). Readers gain a vivid sense of the Surrealist milieu, from Parisian salons to the exile communities in New York and Mexico durng the Second World War. The book also explores how these women negotiated their identity and artistic voice within a movement often overshadowed by its male counterparts.

With over 200 illustrations, including many in full color, the book not only documents artworks but also offers visual narratives of the era. Chadwick highlights recurring themes—myth, dream, and the unconscious—showing how these women interpreted and transformed Surrealist principles in ways that were uniquely their own. Reproductions of paintings, drawings, and photographs make this book both a scholarly resource and a collector’s treasure.

This book is an essential addition for anyone interested in Surrealism, feminist art history, or the broader history of 20th-century art. It encourages a deeper appreciation of how women artists contributed to and reshaped one of the most revolutionary artistic movements of the modern era. Whether for academic study or personal interest, Chadwick’s work is a profound reminder of the importance of visibility and recognition in art history.

Fun fact: Some of the women featured in this book were also skilled writers, poets, and performers, meaning their contributions went far beyond the canvas, influencing literature, theater, and experimental performance as part of the Surrealist vision.

Images © Various. All Rights Reserved.

5 STARS OUT OF FIVE