Surrealist Women

Wednesday 3 February 2027 at 2.00 pm at the Lowther Pavilion. Guests may attend the lecture – £10 pp (pay on door)

Lecturer: Cindy Polemis

Cindy Polemis first visited us in November 2023 when she gave a talk on Food in Paintings: A Tasting Menu. She is an art historian, independent lecturer and art guide. She has a BA in Modern History from Oxford University and as a mature student she went back to university to study first for a BA and then for a Masters in History of Art at Birkbeck College, London University. Before that she spent many years as a radio producer and presenter for the BBC World Service working in news and current affairs. Since 2016 Cindy has worked as  a lecturer and an official art guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. She has also been a trustee at the Museum of the Home, formerly the Geffrye Museum. Cindy has accumulated a wide range of art historical knowledge ranging from 18th European and British art to the contemporary international art scene. She has been an official guide for  Frieze Masters art fair in London. She is particularly keen to draw parallels with art and social history and claims that her lectures are accessible and engaging, drawing out the stories of art and artists which are steeped in human emotions and experiences which we all share. Further information is available on Cindy’s website.

The Lecture:

Overshadowed by the likes of Salvador Dali, René Magritte and Max Ernst, there was host of intriguing Surrealist female artists including Frida Kahlo, Meret Oppenheim and Leonora Carrington, who embraced surrealist ideas and created extraordinary and haunting works with a unique and distinguished conceptual energy.

Caption: Frida Kahlo by Magda Pach, 1933, oil on canvas, from the National Portrait Gallery. Creative Commons