Exhibition poster with the work, Tailleur pour Dames - Women's Tailor (1957), by the Spanish surrealist, Remedios Varo (1908-1963). The poster is from Louisiana's 2020 exhibition, Fantastic Women—the first major, collective presentation of female surrealists.

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.


Remedios Varo, Tailleur pour Dames, 1957. (Women's Tailor). Oil and tempera on canvas. Modern Art International Foundation. Courtesy: Maria and Manuel Reyero Collection, New York. ©Remedios Varo/VISDA