Jane Graverol – L'Esprit Saint, (1965)

Exhibition poster with the work, L'Esprit Saint - The Holy Spirit (1965), by the Belgian artist, Jane Graverol (1905-1984). The poster is from Louisiana's 2020 exhibition, Fantastic Women—the first major collective presentation of female surrealists.

Jane Graverol was a surrealist painter and with the work, L'esprit saint, Graverol plays with the laws of gestalt—that is, especially the question of how we as humans perceive and systematize what we see. What you see can change depending on where you put your focus. Do you see the blue woman or do you see the bird?

Louisiana's extensive exhibition of female surrealists, many of whom have been overlooked and forgotten until now, testified that women played a more important and vocal role in surrealism than in any other artistic avant-garde movement.

Several of the female artists shown were initially partners, muses or models for the male Surrealists, but also—which has often been understated—actively performing artists themselves who contributed important works to the great Surrealism exhibitions of the time.

The exhibition showed, on the one hand, that the female artists worked within themes that in many cases were already associated with surrealism, but at the same time also how they differ from their male colleagues—not least in their search for a (new) female identity model. This often involved an examination of one's own reflection and a play with different roles and female sexuality.

The female artists generally rebelled against a gender-specific role behavior and often presented themselves with markedly androgynous features or in unusual roles or disguises.