This Strange Presence: Unica Zürn Etchings
Saturday, February 15, 2020 - Sunday, September 20, 2020
Comprised of works by the German surrealist Unica Zürn (1916–1970), this exhibition brings together etchings from the Oracles et Spectacles portfolio and a selection of drawings. Perhaps better known for her writings and her photographic collaborations with Hans Bellmer, Zürn was also an accomplished visual artist. She created automatic drawings as well as paintings and sculptures that were exhibited in four solo shows and alongside works by her better-known counterparts in the 1959 Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme. Her success was hindered, however, by the male-dominated surrealist circle in Paris as well as by debilitating mental illness. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, she not only struggled with delusions and hallucinations but also with the prolonged phases of mania and depression that are now associated with bipolar disorder. Her lifelong struggle ended tragically in 1970 when, after a series of hospitalizations, she committed suicide at age 54.
The eight Oracles et Spectacles etchings were made after Zürn’s drawings from the early 1960s, many of which she created while hospitalized. In 1967, they were published as a portfolio in collaboration with Editions Georges Visat in Paris. Zürn populated these immersive scenes with composite creatures and transmuting forms rendered in a delicate, linear style. Gazing at each other and out toward the viewer, these hybrid beings float in a limitless space, devoid of foreground or background. The immersive, dreamlike settings of her visual art also emerge as a pervasive theme in her writings. In the semi-autobiographical novella Dark Spring, for example, the protagonist endures life only through the refuge of her fantasies, where she feels safety and power as well as terror, the feeling she claims to treasure most of all.
A selection of Zürn’s drawings accompany the Oracles et Spectacles etchings. Seen together they demonstrate a progression in Zürn’s style from the compact patterning of her early works—influenced by gifts from her father, a cavalry officer stationed in Africa—to the metamorphic, often vibratory forms of her later work. Simultaneously playful and sinister, glib and tragic, boundless and trapped, these strange, fragmented beings reflect Zürn’s own attempts to understand, explore, and interpret her inner world.
This Strange Presence: Unica Zürn Etchings has been made possible through generous support from Dr. Jiong Yan and Mr. Baxter Jones.
The eight Oracles et Spectacles etchings were made after Zürn’s drawings from the early 1960s, many of which she created while hospitalized. In 1967, they were published as a portfolio in collaboration with Editions Georges Visat in Paris. Zürn populated these immersive scenes with composite creatures and transmuting forms rendered in a delicate, linear style. Gazing at each other and out toward the viewer, these hybrid beings float in a limitless space, devoid of foreground or background. The immersive, dreamlike settings of her visual art also emerge as a pervasive theme in her writings. In the semi-autobiographical novella Dark Spring, for example, the protagonist endures life only through the refuge of her fantasies, where she feels safety and power as well as terror, the feeling she claims to treasure most of all.
A selection of Zürn’s drawings accompany the Oracles et Spectacles etchings. Seen together they demonstrate a progression in Zürn’s style from the compact patterning of her early works—influenced by gifts from her father, a cavalry officer stationed in Africa—to the metamorphic, often vibratory forms of her later work. Simultaneously playful and sinister, glib and tragic, boundless and trapped, these strange, fragmented beings reflect Zürn’s own attempts to understand, explore, and interpret her inner world.
This Strange Presence: Unica Zürn Etchings has been made possible through generous support from Dr. Jiong Yan and Mr. Baxter Jones.
