The Militant Muse

Love, War and the Women of Surrealism

Whitney Chadwick

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Paperback

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English

Thames & Hudson Ltd
25 February 2021

Art & design styles: Surrealism & Dada; Individual artists, art monographs

The Militant Muse documents what it meant to be young, ambitious and female in the context of an avant-garde movement defined by celebrated men whose educational, philosophical and literary backgrounds were often quite different from those of their younger lovers and companions. Focusing on the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, Whitney Chadwick charts five intense, far-reaching female friendships among the Surrealists to show how Surrealism, female friendship and the experiences of war, loss and trauma shaped individual women's transitions from beloved muses to mature artists. Her vivid account includes the fascinating story of Claude Cahun and Suzanne Malherbe's subversive activities in occupied Jersey, as well as the experiences of Lee Miller and Valentine Penrose at the frontline. Chadwick draws on personal correspondence between women, including the extraordinary letters between Leonora Carrington and Leonor Fini during the months following the arrest and imprisonment of Carrington's lover Max Ernst at the beginning of World War Two, and the letter Frida Kahlo shared with her friend and lover Jacqueline Lamba years after it was written in the late 1930s during a difficult stay in Paris, marred by her intense dislike of Breton.

Thoroughly engrossing, this history brings a new perspective to the political context of Surrealism, as well as fresh insights on the vital importance of female friendship to its artistic and intellectual flowering.

With 85 illustrations

By: Whitney Chadwick
Imprint: Thames & Hudson Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm,
Weight: 520g
ISBN: 9780500294710
ISBN 10: 0500294712
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 25 February 2021
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Whitney Chadwick is the author of Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement, the first full-length study of the women of surrealism, and Women, Art, and Society, which has become a required text in art history courses throughout the world. She has also contributed to exhibition catalogues on Sheila Hicks, Mona Hatoum, Wifredo Lam, Nalini Malani, Leonora Carrington and Lee Miller.

Reviews for The Militant Muse: Love, War and the Women of Surrealism

'An important contribution to the way surrealism is understood... it succeeds in transforming our understanding of a whole generation of artists, both women and men' - Literary Review 'A beautifully constructed study of the complicated ways women needed each other and urged each other on' - Guardian 'A valuable and absorbing account of the importance of female solidarity and friendship' - Times Literary Supplement