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Meret Oppenheim Art

Swiss, German, 1913-1985

Though the fame of the sculptor and painter Meret Oppenheim stems mainly from a single work of art, that one was a doozy. Known as Object, the enduringly disconcerting fur-covered teacup, saucer and spoon that Oppenheim created in 1936 remains the one of the most notorious works to spawn from the Surrealist art movement.

Born in Germany and raised in Basel, Switzerland, Oppenheim was encouraged to pursue art by her maternal grandmother, a writer and illustrator. Oppenheim moved to Paris to attend art school in 1932. There, she met the sculptor (and fellow Swiss native) Alberto Giacometti, who introduced her to Man Ray, Max Ernst and André Breton, the founder of the Surrealist movement. Within a year, Oppenheim was exhibiting her paintings with the Surrealists, the first female artist to do so.

Object, the story goes, was born of a lunchtime chat that Oppenheim had with Pablo Picasso and his muse, artist Dora Maar, one afternoon in 1936. The Spanish-born artist admired an unusual fur-lined bracelet that Oppenheim wore, and she replied that anything could be covered fur, “even this cup and saucer!” Her imagination fired, Oppenheim bought some china and a swatch of Chinese gazelle fur. When it was exhibited in New York, Object was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art — the first work of art by a woman acquired by the institution.

Another Oppenheim piece has become an icon of the art-as-design genre, a category that has currency among art collectors: the Traccia table, a side table with a gold- or silver-leafed wooden top, incised with the shapes of two bird-claw impressions, and a cast-bronze base in the form of stork legs. The Traccia — from the Italian for “track,” as in animal track — was created for the 1939 opening of art dealer Leo Castelli’s first gallery, on the Place Vendôme in Paris. The maker Simon International began producing versions of the Traccia in 1970, and the piece is now made by Cassina. Examples are typically priced between $6,300 and $8,500, depending on condition. As striking and amusing today as when it first appeared, the Traccia is an always-suave addition to a modern art and design collection and a tribute to the humor and ingenuity of a groundbreaking 20th-century artist.

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Artist: Meret Oppenheim
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Finding asylum in the U.S., Chagall became involved in set and costume design before returning to France in 1948. In his later years, he experimented with new art forms and was commissioned to produce numerous large-scale works. Chagall died in St.-Paul-de-Vence in 1985. The Village Marc Chagall was born in a small Hassidic community on the outskirts of Vitebsk, Belarus, on July 7, 1887. His father was a fishmonger, and his mother ran a small sundries shop in the village. As a child, Chagall attended the Jewish elementary school, where he studied Hebrew and the Bible, before later attending the Russian public school. He began to learn the fundamentals of drawing during this time, but perhaps more importantly, he absorbed the world around him, storing away the imagery and themes that would feature largely in most of his later work. At age 19 Chagall enrolled at a private, all-Jewish art school and began his formal education in painting, studying briefly with portrait artist Yehuda Pen. 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After settling briefly in the Montparnasse neighborhood, Chagall moved further afield to an artist colony known as La Ruche (“The Beehive”), where he began to work side by side with abstract painters such as Amedeo Modigliani and Fernand Léger as well as the avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire. At their urging, and under the influence of the wildly popular fauvism and cubism, Chagall lightened his palette and pushed his style ever further from reality. I and the Village (1911) and Homage to Apollinaire (1912) are among his early Parisian works, widely considered to be his most successful and representative period. Though his work stood stylistically apart from his cubist contemporaries, from 1912 to 1914 Chagall exhibited several paintings at the annual Salon des Indépendants exhibition, where works by the likes of Juan Gris, Marcel Duchamp and Robert Delaunay were causing a stir in the Paris art world. Chagall’s popularity began to spread beyond La Ruche, and in May 1914 he traveled to Berlin to help organize his first solo exhibition, at Der Sturm Gallery. Chagall remained in the city until the highly acclaimed show opened that June. He then returned to Vitebsk, unaware of the fateful events to come. War, Peace and Revolution In August 1914 the outbreak of World War I precluded Chagall’s plans to return to Paris. The conflict did little to stem the flow of his creative output, however, instead merely giving him direct access to the childhood scenes so essential to his work, as seen in paintings such as Jew in Green (1914) and Over Vitebsk (1914). His paintings from this period also occasionally featured images of the war’s impact on the region, as with Wounded Soldier (1914) and Marching (1915). But despite the hardships of life during wartime, this would also prove to be a joyful period for Chagall. 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Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH

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However, he left the school after several months, moving to St. Petersburg in 1907 to study at the Imperial Society for the Protection of Fine Arts. The following year, he enrolled at the Svanseva School, studying with set designer Léon Bakst, whose work had been featured in Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. This early experience would prove important to Chagall’s later career as well. Despite this formal instruction, and the widespread popularity of realism in Russia at the time, Chagall was already establishing his own personal style, which featured a more dreamlike unreality and the people, places and imagery that were close to his heart. Some examples from this period are his Window Vitebsk (1908) and My Fianceé with Black Gloves (1909), which pictured Bella Rosenfeld, to whom he had recently become engaged. The Beehive Despite his romance with Bella, in 1911 an allowance from Russian parliament member and art patron Maxim Binaver enabled Chagall to move to Paris, France. After settling briefly in the Montparnasse neighborhood, Chagall moved further afield to an artist colony known as La Ruche (“The Beehive”), where he began to work side by side with abstract painters such as Amedeo Modigliani and Fernand Léger as well as the avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire. At their urging, and under the influence of the wildly popular fauvism and cubism, Chagall lightened his palette and pushed his style ever further from reality. I and the Village (1911) and Homage to Apollinaire (1912) are among his early Parisian works, widely considered to be his most successful and representative period. Though his work stood stylistically apart from his cubist contemporaries, from 1912 to 1914 Chagall exhibited several paintings at the annual Salon des Indépendants exhibition, where works by the likes of Juan Gris, Marcel Duchamp and Robert Delaunay were causing a stir in the Paris art world. Chagall’s popularity began to spread beyond La Ruche, and in May 1914 he traveled to Berlin to help organize his first solo exhibition, at Der Sturm Gallery. Chagall remained in the city until the highly acclaimed show opened that June. He then returned to Vitebsk, unaware of the fateful events to come. War, Peace and Revolution In August 1914 the outbreak of World War I precluded Chagall’s plans to return to Paris. The conflict did little to stem the flow of his creative output, however, instead merely giving him direct access to the childhood scenes so essential to his work, as seen in paintings such as Jew in Green (1914) and Over Vitebsk (1914). His paintings from this period also occasionally featured images of the war’s impact on the region, as with Wounded Soldier (1914) and Marching (1915). But despite the hardships of life during wartime, this would also prove to be a joyful period for Chagall. 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Category

1960s Surrealist Meret Oppenheim Art

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Category

1960s Surrealist Meret Oppenheim Art

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Meret Oppenheim art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Meret Oppenheim art available for sale on 1stDibs.

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Questions About Meret Oppenheim Art
  • 1stDibs ExpertOctober 15, 2024
    Most experts state that Meret Oppenheim was part of Surrealism, not Dada. Oppenheim moved to Paris to attend art school in 1932. There, she met sculptor Alberto Giacometti, who introduced her to Man Ray, Max Ernst and André Breton, considered the founder of the Surrealist movement. Within a year, Oppenheim was exhibiting her paintings with the Surrealists, the first female artist to do so. One of her most famous works is the 1936 Object, the enduringly disconcerting fur-covered teacup, saucer and spoon. On 1stDibs, shop a variety of Meret Oppenheim art and furniture.
  • 1stDibs ExpertJanuary 19, 2025
    Meret Oppenheim is famous for her work as a Surrealist artist. One of her best-known pieces is Object, an enduringly disconcerting fur-covered teacup, saucer and spoon that Oppenheim created in 1936. The story goes, it was born of a lunchtime chat that Oppenheim had with Pablo Picasso and his then-muse, artist Dora Maar. The Spanish-born artist admired an unusual fur-lined bracelet Oppenheim wore, and she replied that anything could be covered with fur, “even this cup and saucer!” Her imagination fired, and Oppenheim bought some china and a swatch of Chinese gazelle fur. When it was exhibited in New York, Object was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art. It was the first work of art by a woman acquired by the institution. On 1stDibs, find a selection of Meret Oppenheim art and furniture.