In her photomontages, artist Dora Maar brought unlikely images together to create surprising, dream-like scenes. In her photographs taken in London, Paris and Barcelona, she often found the unusual in the everyday.
Examining her work in relation to the social climate of 1930s Europe and her involvement in surrealist circles, this panel explores Maar’s distinct way of seeing with particular focus on her street photography and political consciousness.
Contributors
Naomi Stewart
Naomi Stewart recently completed her PhD in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh. Her doctoral thesis focuses on Dora Maar’s photographic works and their dialogic relationship with surrealism. Naomi’s primary research interests constellate around women artists, the inter-war avant-gardes, and the history of photography.
Lauren Elkin
Lauren Elkin is the author of Flâneuse: Women Walk the City (Chatto & Windus). Her next book, Art Monsters: On Beauty and Excess (forthcoming, Chatto & Windus), argues for an aesthetics of monstrosity that unites women’s art-making across the last century. She lives in Paris and Liverpool.
Dawn Ades
Dawn Ades is Professor Emerita of the History and Theory of Art at the University of Essex, Professor of the History of Art at the Royal Academy, a Fellow of the British Academy and in 2013 was made CBE for services to higher education. She has published widely on Surrealism, Dada, Photography and women artists.
Shahidha Bari
Shahidha Bari is Professor of Fashion Cultures at the University of the Arts London. She presents BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking and occasionally hosts BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. She writes for The Guardian, the TLS and Frieze magazine. Her latest book is Dressed: The Secret Life of Clothes.