Dora Maar’s extensive talent for photography, painting and poetry has often been eclipsed by her status as Picasso’s muse. In her own right, however, she was a dynamic and experimental artist whose work reflected the compelling magic of the Surrealist movement. Whilst studying at the École des Beaux-Arts, Académie Julian and École de Photographie in her early twenties, she developed a distinctively uncanny black and white photographic style. Her work formed a prominent and influential contribution to continental Surrealism, where she exhibited alongside fellow artists Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, Eileen Agar and Paul Éluard at the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in London. Maar was also an important and progressive figure within the intellectual circles of Paris and could regularly be found exchanging ideas with the likes of André Breton, Jean Cocteau, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre.
The only official photographer of Picasso’s Guernica, Dora Maar’s image has been immortalised by Picasso in his series of Weeping Women. Recently, however, her significant role in the European avant-garde and the scope of her artistic practice has received increased critical and institutional recognition, with a major retrospective of her work held at the Tate Modern in 2019.
