Reconsidering Self-Portraits by Women Surrealists: A Case Study of Claude Cahun and Frida Kahlo

Authors

  • Jennifer Josten Jennifer Josten is a graduate student in the Department of the History of Art at Yale University, New Haven, CT. She holds a Master's degree in Art History and Theory from the University of Essex, Colchester, England.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7202/1121176ar

Abstract

Both Claude Cahun and Frida Kahlo were affiliated with the Surrealist movement in the 1930s for political and professional ends. In their respective bodies of self-portraiture, they mirrored or doubled their own images and stretched the boundaries of gender and sexual representation in order to challenge heteronormative conceptions of identity.

References

Front Cover - Nancy Edell, "Operating" 1994. Hooked rug (found rag and burlap). collection of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Permission by Peter Walker, guardian of estate of Nancy Edell. Photo by Cecily Barrie.

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Published

2012-02-24

Issue

Vol. 30 No. 2 (2006): Women, Art, Politics, and Power

Section

Original Research

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Jennifer Josten

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