LEONOR FINI, SURREALISM, AND SEXUAL POLITICS: A PUBLIC LECTURE BY ALYCE MAHON

Presented by Museum of Sex Curator, Lissa Rivera

In conjunction with the exhibition ‘Leonor Fini: Theatre of Desire, 1930-1990′

Guided tour of ‘Leonor Fini: Theatre of Desire 1930-1990′ with Curator Lissa Rivera and Curatorial Advisor Alyce Mahon, Ph.D.

Throughout her career, Leonor Fini repeatedly portrayed goddesses, sphinxes, sorceresses and libertine heroines as well as passive and beautiful male nudes, subverting the roles and qualities society traditionally ascribes to the sexes. She thought of herself as androgynous and in her life, as in her art, explored identity as a form of performance. In particular she did this through the design of costumes, masks and an obsessive return to portraiture in painting. This lecture will address Fini’s exploration of sexuality and gender as forms of theatre and masquerade, situating her vision within Surrealism’s subversive sexual politics.

Alyce Mahon Bio

Alyce Mahon Ph.D., is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Modern and Contemporary Art History at the University of Cambridge. She is the curatorial advisor for Leonor Fini: Theatre of Desire 1930-1990, Museum of Sex, New York (Sept. 28, 2018-March 4, 2019), and the curator of Dorothea Tanning: Detrás de la puerta, invisible, otra puerta, which is currently on show at the Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (Oct. 3, 2018 –Jan. 7, 2019) and will tour to the Tate Modern, London (Feb. 27–June 6, 2019). She is the author of the monographs Surrealism and the Politics of Eros, 1938-1968 (Thames & Hudson, 2005) and Eroticism & Art (Oxford University Press, 2005), journal essays on Leonor Fini, Frida Kahlo and Carolee Schneemann, and numerous catalogue essays on gender politics in avant-garde art, including Couples Modernes (Centre Pompidou-Metz, 2018), Dreamers Awake (White Cube, London, 2017), Silent Partners: Artist and Mannequin from Function to Fetish (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and Musée Bourdelle, Paris, 2015), The Institute of Sexology (The Wellcome Trust, London, 2014), Leonora Carrington (Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, 2013) and Angels of Anarchy: Women Artists and Surrealism (City Art Gallery, Manchester, 2009).

https://www.museumofsex.com/portfolio_page/alyce-mahon/