In Wonderland The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States

In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States was the first major exhibition devoted to women associated with the Surrealist movement. Covering more than a half century, In Wonderland presented more than 180 works – paintings, sculpture, assemblages, works on paper and photographs – from 75 public and private collections in the United States, Mexico and Europe. 

Visitors were invited to discover the worlds of Frida Kahlo (a dominant figure in Mexican modern art), Louise Bourgeois (one of the major artists of the latter half of the 20th century and the early part of the 21st century), Jacqueline Lamba (painter and André Breton’s muse), Lee Miller (photographer and Man Ray’s Egeria), Dorothea Tanning (painter, sculptor and wife of Max Ernst), Remedios Varo (one of the most important Surrealists in Mexico) and forty other women artists who explored Surrealism between 1930 and the early 1970s. Among the fantastic and phantasmal ideas expressed, questions around identity, sexuality, witchcraft, creativity, psychoanalysis, memory, dreams, sentimentality, politics and war, indigenous cultures, the mother earth and universal mythology played a leading part. An invitation to an extraordinary and moving journey.

This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Museo de Arte Moderno (MAM) in Mexico City, with generous funding from the Terra Foundation for American Art. The organizers thank the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (CONACULTA) and the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) in Mexico City for their invaluable support.