This live virtual talk will examine the robust artistic period in Mexico between 1940 and 1955 that emerged from liberal ideas about collaboration, immigration, and gender roles. As European artists and writers sought refuge from World War II, some fled to the United States; others sought refuge south of the border. European Surrealists had long harbored notions of Mexico as a land deeply connected to the vestiges of a mythical, pre-modern utopia. Soon after their arrival, a core group of artist émigrés deepened their engagement with local histories and customs in ways that changed the development of their own work and of Surrealist thought. Artists Leonora Carrington, Esteban Francés, José and Kati Horna, Gordon Onslow Ford, Wolfgang Paalen, Alice Rahon, and Remedios Varo were among those who made Mexico their long-term or permanent home.
Jennifer Field is Executive Director of the Estate of David Smith. She has held curatorial and research positions at Di Donna Galleries, the Willem de Kooning Foundation, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Her projects have included the exhibitions Surrealism in Mexico at Di Donna Galleries and Martin Puryear, Manet and the Execution of Maximilian, and De Kooning: A Retrospective at MoMA. Dr. Field received her M.A. from Hunter College and her Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.