Butterfly Time: Part II: A group exhibition of women in Surrealism
Richard Saltoun Gallery is pleased to announce Butterfly Time: Part II as a part of a sequence of three group exhibitions underscoring the contributions by a total of 11 pioneering female artists from 4 different continents to the global Surrealist movement. Titled after a work by the renowned Czech artist Toyen, the exhibition is an extension of the gallery’s presentation at Independent 20th Century from September 6-8 2024.
Butterfly Time: Part II includes works by Marion ADNAMS (1898, UK - 1995, UK); Bona DE MANDUARGUES (1926, Rome - 2000, Paris); Mimi PARENT (1924, Canada - 2005, Ollon); Juliana SERAPHIM (1934, Jaffa - 2005, Beirut) and TOYEN (1902, Czechia - 1980, France). The exhibition highlights shared influences and themes in their practices, including displacement, the profound impact of war, the experience of migration and exile, explorations of identity and gender, and the intersection of personal and cultural mythologies.
A highlight of the gallery’s presentation is the work of Toyen. Born Marie Čermínová in Prague, Toyen is a revolutionary figure in the Czech avant-garde and Surrealist movements. Embracing the gender-neutral name "Toyen" to challenge societal norms, they became an integral member of the Devětsil artistic group. Initially influenced by Cubism and Purism, Toyen, alongside Jindřich Štyrský, developed Artificialism, a unique style emphasizing abstract forms and poetic memory. This style transcends mere visual representation, delving into the subconscious.
In the 1930s, Toyen's work evolved to embrace Surrealist elements, marked by enigmatic imagery, dreamlike landscapes, and a profound exploration of eroticism and the unconscious mind. Their innovative techniques, such as dripping and spraying paint, defined their distinct visual language. Despite the oppressive Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, Toyen's resilience saw them preserving their own and their peers' works. After World War II, they relocated to Paris, where they immersed themselves in the Surrealist community, collaborating with figures like André Breton, Salvador Dalí, and Max Ernst.
Toyen's art, influenced by their fluid approach to gender, tackled themes of gender, politics, and eroticism. Their wartime experiences profoundly impacted their work, exemplified by pieces such as Butterfly Time - Pre-Spring (Kresba K Predjari) from 1945, which lends its title to the gallery’s presentation, and reflects the consequences of conflict. This evocative image of a pile of rocks within a barren landscape, upon which a kaleidoscope of butterflies have descended, evocatively blur the lines between life and death, movement and inertia, subject and object. Through such haunting images, Toyen underscores the surreal and disturbing impact of war, presenting a powerful critique of its dehumanizing effects. The artist’s later works, such as Sur Le Champ, continued to explore isolation, existential dread, and the human psyche through rich symbolism, reflecting their enduring fascination with the mind's inner workings.
The exhibition includes three paintings from the 1950s and 60s by Bona de Mandiargues, who extends Toyen’s exploration of metamorphosis and identity. Considered one of the major artists responsible of the revival of feminine surrealism, she began to exhibit in the early 1950s, in Italy and Paris. Between 1950 and 1956 the artist produced small paintings in which the recurring subjects are anthropomorphic landscapes, roots and monstrous creatures inserted in an imaginary and metaphysical space, of which the exhibited work Bassa Marea [Low Tide] is a great example.
Her practice mainly draws on self-research that finds in the themes of metamorphosis, animal totemism and fantasy the means to express a divided and fragmented identity. After a formative phase Bona arrived at a figurative painting nourished by fantastic suggestions, which interprets nature based on the surrealist research of the wonderful and the disturbing. Her work is enriched with references to the cultures with which she comes into contact, both in the chromatic ranges, the style and in the subjects and symbols. From the 1960s until the 90s, the theme portraiture emerged to the foreground of her practice, both with a series of tributes to historical protagonists of twentieth-century culture, as seen in her large-scale, colourful portrait of Octavio Paz on display, and with an exploration of the self through self-portraits and family portraits. Bona's work is included in the 2024 Venice Biennale.
Mimi Parent, a central figure in the surrealist movement, was closely connected with influential figures such as André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, and her husband, Jean Benoît. Her groundbreaking work, particularly her "tableaux-objets," delves into the subconscious, challenging established narratives of gender and power. Her works are heavily influenced by figures and elements from mythology and folklore, mirroring the Surrealist interest in the unconscious and the fantastical. Parent’s work, like that of Bona de Mandiargues, often incorporates personal symbolism and erotic themes, blurring the boundaries between reality and imagination, as seen in the exhibited ink drawing on paper, La proue surréaliste [The surrealist prowe].
Parent's art was prominently featured in key surrealist exhibitions, including the International Surrealist Exhibition devoted to Eros in 1959. Throughout her career, her works were showcased in significant solo exhibitions such as at the Galerie André-François Petit in Paris (1984), the Museum Bochum in Germany (1984), and the Noyers-sur-Serein in France (1992). Additionally, her work was included in major thematic exhibitions, such as Fémininmasculin at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (1995) and Surrealism: Desire Unbound at the Tate Modern in London (2001), underscoring her lasting impact on the surrealist movement and the broader art world.
Marion Adnams was a key figure in the British Surrealist movement, having exhibited alongside figures such as Jack Bilbo and Max Ernst. She was born in Derby, UK, and remained there until her death at the age of 96. She is well known for her distinctive, dream-like Surrealist paintings, in which apparently unconnected objects appear together in unfamiliar, often outdoor, environments that directly reference the Derby landscape. Between 1938 and 1970, Adnams painted the surrealist works for which she is mainly known, exhibiting at the British Art Centre in London. In 1944 she exhibited her work at the Modern Art Gallery in London, alongside Jack Bilbo and Max Ernst. Her work is included in numerous public collections including the National Galleries of Scotland, Manchester Art Gallery and the Derby Museum and Art Gallery.
The exhibition will also spotlight three key paintings by Lebanese Surrealist Juliana Seraphim, focusing on key paintings from the 1970s. Seraphim was recently included in two landmark exhibitions Arab presence: Modern Art and Decolonisation, Paris 1908-1988 at the Museé d’Art Moderne, Paris 2024, and Beirut and The Golden Sixties, Biennale de Lyon, 2022, together with contemporaries Etel Adnan and Hueguette Caland.
Her work, deeply personal and spiritually infused, resonates with the broader Surrealist engagement with memory, identity, and the subconscious. She was born in Jaffa, Palestine, and her early life was profoundly shaped by the 1948 Palestinian exodus (al-Nakba), which forced her family to flee to Beirut. This experience of displacement left a lasting impact on her art. In Beirut, she studied at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts and worked with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). In the late 1950s, she continued her art studies in Florence, Paris, and Madrid, where she began developing a unique Surrealist language that blended Western influences with Middle Eastern cultural motifs.
She became a key figure in the Middle Eastern art scene from the 1960s to the 1990s, known for her fusion of Surrealism and feminist themes. As one of the first female Lebanese artists to gain international acclaim, she represented Lebanon in major biennials, including Alexandria (1962), Paris (1963, 1969), and São Paulo (1965).
Seraphim’s work stands out for its deeply personal exploration of exile and identity through a distinctly female perspective. Art critic Helen Khal observed in 1987 that Seraphim’s art "voices the private desires of her own womanhood," a theme that resonates throughout her oeuvre. Her paintings typically feature layers of erotic and dreamlike imagery, with fantastical cityscapes and characters morphing into plants and flowers. She drew inspiration from the faded frescoes of winged beings on the ceiling of her grandfather's monastery in Jerusalem, infusing her work with a sense of spirituality and personal memory.
