2025 marks the 40th anniversary of Whitney Chadwick’s seminal book Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement, which provided long overdue recognition of the remarkable group of women who played a critical role in one of the most influential movements of the twentieth century.
Acknowledging this important anniversary, NGV curators Dr Ted Gott and Eva Christoff consider the contributions of two women Surrealists – American artist and poet Kay Sage and Czech artist Marie Čermínová – known professionally as Toyen – through an exploration of works in the NGV Collection, including a recently acquired painting by Sage now on display at NGV International.
This talk, developed especially for NGV Members, provides an opportunity to reflect on the substantial contributions of these two artists to development of Surrealism in Europe, with both exploring a radical, non-hierarchical alternative to their male peers’ vision of the movement.
Eva Christoff is Curatorial Project Officer of Prints and Drawings at the NGV. Eva has a BA (Honours) in Art History from the University of Melbourne and an MA in Art History and Curating from the University of Birmingham. Before joining the NGV, she curated Mastering the Market: Dutch and Flemish Paintings from Woburn Abbey, 2022 at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, and acted as Curatorial Assistant on numerous exhibitions at Wolverhampton Art Gallery including Pop Art and Pottery, 2023 and Ed Isaacs: Drawing Places, 2023.
This program is part of a series of Members Talks that uncover the stories behind works from the NGV Collection, developed especially for NGV Members. Book into two or more talks to receive a 10% discount.