Preparing for Your Visit
Dora Maar in Her Own Right

Dora Maar is usually remembered as the sultry model and muse whose features were immortalised in Picasso's Weeping Woman series. This one-dimensional view belies the extraordinary talent and personal magnetism of this fascinating woman.

A secret rarely uncovered is her brilliance, both as an artist in her own right and as a powerful intellectual and political force within the avant-garde milieu of Paris in the 1930s and 40s. She was a member of the French communist party, a dynamic contributor to the Surrealist Movement, and associated with a group of Russian radicals known as 'October' whose ambition was to take theatre to the working class. André Breton, the founder of the Surrealist Movement, and Paul Eluard, a key Surrealist poet, were amongst her friends.

Those who knew Maar have painted a picture of a stunningly beautiful woman with an acute intelligence and mercurial temperament matched by the flamboyance of her dress. She is also known to have possessed an unusual husky voice that even she admitted was an instrument of seduction. Her elegant hands and exquisitely manicured nails, often painted in outlandish colours such as blue, green, red and black depending on her mood, were legendary.

Despite this image, she simultaneously exuded a secretive and enigmatic quality that concealed her private persona. As a young woman in her twenties, she became an accomplished commercial photographer whose fashion and publicity work featured seductive, cutting-edge images inspired by Surrealist principles. She was a respected Surrealist artist who collaborated with some of the great photographers of the day, including Brassaï and Man Ray, for whom she also modelled.

Portrait of Ubu, 1936, a disturbing and mysterious image thought to be an armadillo foetus became an icon of the Surrealist Movement. The experimental and innovative practice of Maar is revealed in her photomontage 29 rue d'Astorg c. 1936. A found object, (objet-trouvé), in this case a 15-centimetre tall bizarre statuette of a voluptuous woman revealing a bared shoulder under the classical drapery of her dress, provides the work's focal point. The artist has intensified the strangeness of the statuette by removing her head to expose two fixed orbits creating 'eyes' on a face to which she has added a blunt v-shaped mouth, similar to those found on ancient Iberian and Etruscan sculptures representing beaked gods. The process of making the work involved experimentation with different backgrounds, lighting and framing before the statuette was finally placed in front of a bent photograph of the architectural features of the Orangerie at Versailles. Resembling a stage set, the finished piece combines sculpture and photography, a practice that can be seen as a forerunner to the experimental techniques currently employed today by artists Cindy Sherman and Sandy Skoglund. The fact that this extraordinary work was named after the address of the artist's studio suggests that she saw it as her insignia.

In 1943 Maar suffered depression and a nervous breakdown, following the final, painful break up of a ten-year relationship with Picasso. She recovered after receiving psychiatric treatment from her friend Jacques Lacan, before re-entering the cultural life of Paris as a proud and independent woman. Her career as a photographer ended abruptly when Picasso made light of her talent, but she continued to paint, write poetry and latterly take or rework photographs until the last two years of her life. Dora Maar, who became a devout Catholic and recluse, died in 1997 aged 89. She is reported to have said before her death 'After Picasso only God'.

Questions for Further Discussion:

1. In what ways might Dora Maar be regarded as an artist ahead of her time?
2. Research the process of photomontage and discuss the work of artists who have used it, such as Salvador Dali and David Hockney.
3. Imagine you are an art critic writing about 29 rue d'Astorg c.1936. Describe the image in detail and suggest the messages and meanings the artist might be trying to communicate.
4. Make a list of all the words that spring to mind when you look at this photomontage. Create your own Surrealist image using these words as a stimulus.

 Other References (Preparing for Your Visit)

• The Genius of Picasso
• The Surrealist Movement

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