Einhornhexe (Unicorn Witch) —
Meret Oppenheim & Friends
Forty years ago, last November, Meret Oppenheim died at the age of 72. When the Surrealist Manifesto was written and published by André Breton in Paris in 1924, Oppenheim was only eleven years old. While artists, philosophers, and writers were already gathering in the bars and cafés of Montparnasse and Montmartre to discuss new forms of art and society and to unite as a shared movement, she was still living with her family in Lörrach. Alongside André Breton, Paul Éluard, and Max Ernst, other prominent artists from across Europe soon joined this group, including the Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti.
In 1932, Meret Oppenheim and Irène Zurkinden, both just eighteen years old at the time, boarded a train in Basel bound for Paris, where their Swiss acquaintances Kurt Seligmann, Hans Rudolf Schiess, and Jean Arp were already firmly established within the circle of Surrealists. Through them, Oppenheim met Man Ray, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Leonor Fini, Dora Maar, and Marcel Duchamp.
After returning to Switzerland in the late 1930s, Oppenheim profoundly influenced many young Swiss artists with the impressions and insights she had gained in Paris, which she transformed into a highly distinctive and unmistakable artistic language of her own. Among those shaped by her work were Daniel Spoerri and Dieter Roth.
The exhibition Einhornhexe (Unicorn Witch) – Meret Oppenheim & Friends explores, on the one hand, the impact that Oppenheim’s encounters with the Surrealists in Paris had on her art. A second focus lies on her formative influence on the subsequent generation of artists in Switzerland. Numerous works by her companions from later stages of their careers are presented in the exhibition, bearing witness to the enduring radiance of Meret Oppenheim, who is today regarded as one of the most important artists of the twentieth century.
Schedule
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Exhibition opening (Registration not required)
Lecture by Dr. Belinda Grace Gardner, art and literary scholar, Hamburg. Followed by a dialogue with Thomas Levy, gallerist and curator, HamburgAdmission: 6:30 pm
Start: 7 pm -
Lecture by Dr. phil. Anne Simone Kiesiel, Hamburg
Admission: 6:30 pm
Start: 7 pm -
Short Film Evening Schein oder Sein – Surrealismus im Film. Ein Dialog mit Meret Oppenheims Werk, with Uta Pape, cultural management, Bielefeld
Admission: 6:30 pm
Start: 7 pm -
Lecture by Dr. Annabelle Görgen-Lammers, Hamburg
Admission: 6:30 pm
Start: 7 pm -
A Music and Lecture Evening with Dirk Strehl, Herford, and Shawn Grocott and Kosta Delinikolov, Detmold
Admission: 6:30 pm
Start: 7 pm
(from left to right) Meret Oppenheim, Poster Pelztasse (fond rouge), 1971, LEVY Galerie, © VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2026. Man Ray, Metronom (Perpetual Motive), 1970 (1923), ahlers collection, © Man Ray Trust / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026. Hans (Jean) Arp, Constellation 2 de l'oiseau aquatique, 1951, ahlers collection, © VG Bild‑Kunst, Bonn 2026.