I am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA podcast is the renowned psychologist Lisa Wenger, who is also – very excitingly – the niece of the artist we are going to be discussing today: Meret Oppeheim!
Having collected and copied thousands of letters, notes, and documents from acquaintances of the German-Swiss artist – famed for her paintings, sculptures, collages, and more, who was commonly associated with the Surrealists – Wenger is something of a world expert on her aunt. The author and co-author of numerous books, including the award-winning “do not wrap words in poisonous letters” as well as “Meret Oppenheim - My Album” - Wenger is also responsible for updating the catalogue raisonne of her aunt, and co-running the estate, which has of late seen Oppenheim have major retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, Kunstmuseum Bern, and others that has put the trailblazing artist firmly in the spotlight.
Born in 1913 in Berlin, at the inception of the first world war, Oppenheim was raised with her maternal grandmother in Switzerland. An interest in Jung as a teenager led to her life-long fascination with dreams, informing her art practice and involvement with the surrealists, who she met in Paris after venturing there aged 18 in the 1930s. Here, she created some of her most iconic artworks, such as the fur-lined teacup and saucer which she called Object (1936), that attracts as it does repulses and still divides opinion today, and ‘my nurse’, a pair of white high-heeled shoes turned upside-down to evoke a chicken on a tray, which plays with gender stereotypes, femininity and the domestic sphere.
But, with the outbreak of the second world war, it was back to Switzerland, which proved to be a very different environment to Paris… But, never not creating, Oppenheim made dream-like paintings, sculptures, and collages that reflected her dreams, as well as a woman stifled by her lack of freedom. Over the decades, Oppenheim built up a output that would become some of the most pioneering in Europe, after all, she said: “nobody will give you freedom, you have to take it”
Today, I meet Lisa in Casa Constanza, in Carona, surrounded by Meret’s possessions and spirit - and ahead of the new exhibition at Hauser & Wirth (4 June – 19 July 2025). Let's find out more!
https://www.hauserwirth.com/hauser-wirth-exhibitions/meret-oppenheim/
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Sound editing by Mikaela Carmichael
Music by Ben Wetherfield