Dora Maar, Landscape of Menerbes, 1950s, Watercolor

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Landscape of menerbes where picasso gave her a house and she lived for several years. The work is signed and … Read more Landscape of menerbes where picasso gave her a house and she lived for several years. The work is signed and stamped md dora maar (paris 1907 – 1997). Born henrietta theodora markovitch, dora maar was a french photographer, painter, and poet whose career and successes were overshadowed, during her lifetime, by her relationship with pablo picasso. Her work was rediscovered and reevaluated after his death. Maar, whose mother was french and her father croatian, spent her childhood in buenos aires, where her father worked as an architect. In the early 1920s, she returned to paris, where she attended various art schools, including the académie julian and andré lhote's atelier. In the early 1930s, she began a career as a photographer, sharing a studio with the set designer pierre kéfer, meeting man ray, and adopting the name dora maar. The 1930s, characterized by a severe economic crisis, were a favorable period for the development of "street photography." maar's attention was captured by beggars, vagabonds, and single mothers with young children, whom she portrayed with profound humanity. She worked in fashion and advertising, but her network expanded rapidly, and by 1935 she had become a full member of the surrealist movement. She actively shared its left-wing political commitment, photographed many of its artists, exhibited with them (she was one of the very few women admitted), and forged strong bonds with andré breton, paul éluard, and georges bataille. Her work began to take on the dreamlike, dark, and sometimes disturbing characteristics typical of surrealism. The world of dreams, children's art, the primitive, eroticism, and the disturbing distortion of everyday life: this was dora's universe. Technically, she boasted extensive experience, which allowed her to retouch negatives and superimpose images with rare sensitivity. Her works included solarizations, collages, and photomontages, some of which became celebrated icons of surrealism. The story between maar and picasso likely began in 1935. She often immortalized him, just as he portrayed her—she is the famous weeping woman—and the photographs of him painting guernica are an extraordinary historical document testifying to the creation of one of the most significant paintings of the twentieth century. It was picasso who convinced her to abandon photography and devote herself to painting. This process would prove extremely conflictual in every respect, as it was difficult to free oneself from the overwhelming influence of the genius. Dora's compositions, however, particularly the large still lifes, reveal a stillness and stylized forms that foreshadow the future abstract language she would adopt. Over the years, her relationship with picasso deteriorated until it finally collapsed around 1944. Her tormented love life and the painful events of the second world war overwhelmed her, causing her to sink into depression and a psychological crisis that required psychiatric hospitalization. She was also subjected to electroshock therapy, thanks to the intervention of her friend éluard, and was treated by psychoanalyst jacques lacan. A quote from maar is illuminating for a glimpse into the picasso-maar relationship: "everyone thought i would commit suicide after picasso left me, but i didn't, so as not to give him the satisfaction." in reality, dora was desperate, and over the next fifty years she engaged in a titanic struggle to find herself. Painting and religion represented the two ways to transform the despair caused by the loss of her reference points. Until the late 1950s, she still frequented a few friends and artistic circles, but her appearances became increasingly rare, and she no longer exhibited. Her pictorial production evolved freely. The subjects of her works were enriched by the unadorned landscapes of ménerbes, a place where picasso had given her a house and where, when not in paris, she led a very private life: meditation, spiritual research, and painting. Poetry, a dimension that accompanied her throughout her life, left an increasingly profound mark on her artistic journey. Her landscapes are essentially lyrical, eventually veering towards abstraction. Little by little, figuration fades to make way for the poetic essence of the subject. From the 1980s, still dividing her time between paris and ménerbes, she became totally isolated, and her religiosity turned into bigoted fanaticism. In the last years of her life, dora maar returned to photography and reworked old frames, evidently driven by an inexhaustible creativity. In 1995, her first major retrospective, dora maar fotografie (fundación bancaixa), was held in valencia. In 2006, her home (the dora maar house) in ménerbes was opened as a retreat for writers, scholars, and artists as part of a program managed by the museum of fine arts in houston. Numerous publications and exhibitions have been dedicated to her. Among the most recent and institutional: 2022 pablo picasso and dora maar. A dialogue with the fondation beyeler, pinacoteca agnelli, turin. 2019–2020 dora maar, centre pompidou, paris; tate modern, london; j. Paul getty museum, los angeles. The largest retrospective ever organized to date. 2014 dora maar. Despite picasso, palazzo fortuny, venice. 2001–2 dora maar & picasso, haus der kunst, munich; dora maar: battle, picasso and the surrealists, centre de la vieille charité, marseille; dora maar: photography, picasso and the surrealists, centre cultural tecla sala, barcelona. This piece is attributed to the mentioned designer/maker. It has no attribution mark and no
official proof of authenticity,
however it is well documented in design history. I take full responsibility for any authenticity



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