The Militant Muse

Whitney Chadwick

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Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Thames & Hudson
01 May 2025

Art & Architecture; Art & design styles: Surrealism & Dada

A beautifully written and elegantly constructed narrative that explores the intense, complex and far-reaching female friendships among the Surrealists during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

The Militant Muse documents what it meant to be young, ambitious and female in the context of an avant-garde movement defined by celebrated men whose educational, philosophical and literary backgrounds were often quite different from those of their younger lovers and companions.

Focusing on the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, Whitney Chadwick charts five intense, far-reaching female friendships among the surrealists to show how surrealism and the experiences of war, loss and trauma shaped individual women's transitions from beloved muses to mature artists. Her vivid account includes the fascinating story of Claude Cahun and Suzanne Malherbe's subversive activities in occupied Jersey, as well as the experiences of Lee Miller and Valentine Penrose at the frontline. The book draws on personal correspondence between the women, including the extraordinary letters between Leonora Carrington and Leonor Fini following the imprisonment of Carrington's lover Max Ernst, and the letter Frida Kahlo shared with her friend and lover Jacqueline Lamba years after it was written in the 1930s during a difficult stay in Paris.

This thoroughly engrossing history brings a new perspective to the political context of surrealism, as well as fresh insights on the vital importance of female friendship to artistic and intellectual flowering.

By: Whitney Chadwick
Imprint: Thames & Hudson
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm,
Weight: 360g
ISBN: 9780500298275
ISBN 10: 0500298270
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 01 May 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Reviews for The Militant Muse

'A valuable and absorbing account of the importance of female solidarity and friendship' - Times Literary Supplement 'A beautifully constructed study of the complicated ways women needed each other and urged each other on' - Guardian 'An important contribution to the way surrealism is understood… it succeeds in transforming our understanding of a whole generation of artists, both women and men' - Literary Review