Celebrating Meret Oppenheim

This content was published on October 3, 2017 1:59 PMOct 3, 2017 - 13:59

On the birthday of Swiss surrealist Meret Oppenheim, swissinfo.ch takes a look at some of her diverse oeuvre, which includes paintings, poems, lithographs, photographs and sculptures.

Oppenheim was born in Berlin on October 6, 1913, but the family moved to Switzerland the following year when her father was conscripted for World War I.

She moved to Paris in 1932 to become a painter and in 1936 gained fame with “Breakfast in fur”. The teacup covered in gazelle fur was the result of an encounter with Picasso and his mistress Dora Maar in which they decided that anything could be made out of fur.

However, she found the overnight fame overwhelming, so she retreated back to Switzerland where she spent the rest of her life working outside all stylistic conventions and refusing all labels.

Oppenheim, who died in Basel in 1985, is considered a trailblazer of the avant-garde.