PRS Main Campus, 3910 Los Feliz Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027, USA map directions

Surrealist Study Group (SSG) hosted by dama in the PRS Library

Surrealist Study Group (SSG) is a critical inquiry into the works of women artists and writers associated with Surrealism. The group will focus on how the poetics and politics of female works of surrealism in the past intersect with and contribute to contemporary debates on gender, sexuality, spirituality, subjectivity, otherness, anthropocentrism, and the environment. For each gathering of study we will select a short story, a chapter, an artwork or a journal entry to be discussed.

Surrealism is a movement that walks the margins, whether these margins belong to society, culture, or gender. Male surrealist authors have often idealized the figure of woman as inspiration and creator with privileged access to the unconscious. Seen as muses by these authors, women are sacralized and reified, while simultaneously regarded as a currency of exchange and seduction. Surrealist art began as a reflection on societal norms, borne out of a desire to break them. However, many of the themes presented in the art of early female surrealists - such as the socially alienating experience of femininity - continue to remain relevant for women today. In a sense, their art stands as a testament to just how little has changed.

We will focus on works by women such as Claude Cahun, Leonora Carrington, Anaïs Nin, Maya Deren, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Agnes Denes, Leonor Fini, Bona de Mandiargues, Joyce Mansour, Dorothea Tanning, Clarice Lispector, Remedios Varo and others. Their exceptional thought, art, and writing will lead us to central questions regarding gender, art and literature in the 21st century.

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This is an in-person meet up only.

Suggested donation: $10

Ticket limit: 20

Please email events@prs.org or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions.