MERET OPPENHEIM

Meret Oppenheim was born in 1913 in Berlin-Charlottenburg and died in 1985 in Basel. Already in her teens, she decided herself to do art and, in 1933, she traveled to Paris with a friend who was a painter. There she met Alberto Giacometti and Hans Arp.

Man Ray photographed them on a printing press in the cycle of images Érotique voilée, which earned her the reputation as the muse of the Surrealists. In 1936, she moved back to Basel. In 1956, she designed costumes and masks for Daniel Spoerri’s production of Picasso’s play How to Pack Your Wishes on the tail.

She lived and worked alternately in Paris, Bern and Carona. In 1981, during Oppenheim’s lifetime, Galerie Krinzinger exhibited Meret Oppenheim in the gallery space for the first time. In 1997, a retrospective was organized which was shown at the gallery in Vienna at the Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, The Netherlands, Uppsala Konstmuseum, Sweden and the Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland.

Text courtesy Galerie Krinzinger.