Dora Maar steps out of Picasso’s shadow with new Paris show

While more than half of visual artists working professionally today are women, their works account for a clear minority of those represented in galleries, with most major institutions devoting fewer than 30% of their solo exhibitions to women artists. However, this disparity is slowly changing to reflect a marked change in cultural consciousness, amplified by the empowered voices of those speaking out against gender inequality and acts of and everyday misogyny.

Particularly in the arts, the last few years has seen an upsurge in a number of revelatory accounts of systemic abuse and the ill treatment of women committed by high-profile figures, with campaigns such as #MeToo and #TimesUp shining a light on the abuses of power inherent in creative industries. The question of how far should we let our contemporary reactions re-evaluate the works of great artists is one that is highly nuanced and puts the work of influential male cultural icons from Shakespeare — but wasn’t everyone a misogynist in the 16th century? — to Michael Jackson under a highly sceptical microscope.

With art history student-turned-comedian Hannah Gadsby performing a scathing indictment against one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso, in her Netflix special Nanette, it is with a righteous irony that the works of Dora Maar, with whom the artist had a tumultuous relationship, are finally being appreciated in their own right.

The largest retrospective of Maar’s works ever held in France opened this week at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The exhibit features nearly 400 works that traces the career of the photographer and painter, from fashion editorials and street photography to the opening of her Paris studio in 1935 and a rediscovered love of painting later in life. When Maar met Pablo Picasso later that same year, it was through a mutual collective of surrealist artists with whom the artist had already exhibited her own works and shared political engagements, and yet, Maar’s works and activism have been heavily overlooked due to her relationship with Picasso.

Far from being regarded as an equal, Maar’s legacy is often reduced to that of a model and a muse for her male counterpart, a status that becomes problematic when it lends itself to objectification and contributes to an erasure of women’s successes. Why has Maar’s work gone widely unappreciated, when Picasso, who subjected several women with whom he had intimate relationships, including Maar, to physical and emotional abuse, is remembered as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century? The clue, unsurprisingly, is in the gender.

Maar’s story is by no means the only tale of a female artist being overshadowed by her partner, and shares parallels with other figures such as Lee Krasner, an influential abstract expressionist painter whose legacy has been consistently side-lined in favour of that of her husband, Jackson Pollock. Then there’s the case of Cuban American artist Ana Mendieta, which is particularly tragic. Many believe that the celebrated artist was killed by her husband, fellow sculptor Carl Andre. The acquittal of her husband is still highly controversial, sparking ongoing protests at the opening of Andre’s exhibitions and the foundation of Where is Ana Mendieta?, an archiving project that fights against the erasure of female, non-binary and PoC figures within the art world.

The careers and memories of Maar, Krasner and Mendieta have been somewhat tarnished in their critical understanding as a response to the work and actions of their male counterparts, which is an experience lived by women from all backgrounds and professions. But as society becomes more collectively aware of the devastating and unforgivable truths effectuated by such gender disparities, the demand for a more transparent and representative creative sphere is only continuing to gain momentum. Exhibitions honouring women in the arts such as the Dora Maar retrospective are needed more than ever, not only to display the fascinating but overlooked works of art by influential figures throughout history, but also to encourage the movement for gender equality across the arts and beyond, and subvert the status of ‘muse’ so often tagged to women who deserve artistic recognition in their own right.

All images courtesy of Centre Pompidou. The Dora Maar exhibition in Gallery 2 of the Centre Pompidou is open until July 29.