March, 2008Power Plays: Gender Politics in Surrealist Relationships“There is always a dependency involved in a love relationship. I think if you are dependent it can be extremely painful. For both partners in any relationship, there are advantages and disadvantages to staying together. In typical artist couples, the greatest benefit for the woman was the advantage of access into an art world that would have otherwise been very difficult to enter, and wider spread recognition for her work. Carrington’s relationship with Ernst made inclusion in a Surrealist exhibition in Paris possible. Kahlo also gained access to an art world that might otherwise have overlooked her, but hiding behind the facade of the devoted wife of the genius painter also cushioned her from risks and bruises that she might have experienced entering into the art-world on her own. Sage used her wealth to get close to Tanguy and gain access to the Surrealist inner circle that she so badly desired. For the men, the benefit came in the form of admiration, devotion, and inspiration from younger women. Carrington played the femme-enfant and muse to Ernst during the time of their relationship. Kahlo played “dove” to Rivera’s “elephant”, balancing out his brutish tendencies with her charm, and nurturing him like a child. Tanguy received not only Sage’s unfaltering devotion but also the financial security and personal stability that her wealth could provide. When one partner realizes that the negative aspects outweigh the positive benefits in a relationship, he or she must decide whether to continue or end it. Each of these three women experienced negative imbalances and double standards to various degrees, but only Carrington made the choice to pull out. Kahlo remarried Rivera after a yearlong divorce that proved unbearable for both of them. Sage dedicated herself to Tanguy for the rest of his life, and in doing so gave up gave up her sense of self. Carrington, on the other hand, recognized these imbalances and had the foresight, rationality, and inner strength to make the painful decision to end her relationship with Ernst. Their relationship was from the start the type of ‘mad love” that the Surrealists romanticized. In Paris, she willingly acted as his “slightly crazy muse,” and in their idyllic country home, she seemed just as oblivious as he was to the dangers of the German occupation of France. When Ernst, who was seen as a degenerate artist and a “menace to the Reich,” (Suleiman, 98) was taken to an internment camp, Carrington suffered the psychological effects that such a traumatic event might place on anyone so young and naive. The separation from Ernst during his imprisonment and her time in a sanitarium seems to have given her some perspective on her situation. Surely the horrors of the war shook her out of the romantic sense of invincibility that young people tend to feel. When reunited with Ernst in Lisbon, Spain, she refused to help him, despite his pleading. She was strong enough to realize that she had to have the power to walk away from a relationship she could not be in without being his slave. Carrington had such strong sense of self-identity that she was no longer willing to compromise it to stay in a relationship. Her ability to recognize this and act on it speaks of her personal power. An artist’s sense of self and personal power is always important to his or her work and career. This is especially true for women, who are already at a disadvantage in an art world that favors men. A woman artist who has confidence in her sense of self will fare better than one who fully surrenders her identity to her partner and allows his successes to overshadow her own. Prior to the feminist movements of the late 20th century, many women artists endured being identified only as the wife of a will known artist to also happens to paint. When critics recognize her works as watered down derivations of her husband’s she is disenfranchised and diminished as an artist and as an individual. Typically, Surrealist women who broke away from their partners, afterwards grew as artists and enjoyed autonomous success. This can be said of Carrington. Kahlo and Sage remained with their partners and therefore struggled with being seen only as the wife of a successful artist, never receiving widespread recognition for their work until many years after their deaths. Sage’s paintings were regarded by critics as lesser versions of Tanguy’s, and it has been assumed that her vast, eerie and uninhibited landscapes were derivative of his, without consideration to the possibility that her would could have influenced him as well. As late as 1977, a critic labeled her work “important variations on Tanguy’s” (Suther, 147). While she gave him her absolute devotion, admiration, and support, he did not give her encouragement in kind. Tanguy would not comment publicly on her work, and showed with her only once. It is possible that he was jealous of her work and fearful of being upstaged, but Sage also contributed to her own marginalization by playing the supportive wife who paints in her husband’s shadow. Sage longed for acceptance within the Surrealist inner circle, and certainly her relationship with Tanguy brought her into closer contact than she would have achieved otherwise, but they by and large rejected her. She was too old to play femme enfant, and she worked too hard, taking her art too seriously. She wanted it too badly for them to want her back. She was generous with her financial support, and while this probably secured her relationship with Tanguy, it also made her alien to them. Andre Breton, who had a paternal sort of power over Tanguy, was scornful of her, despite the fact that she sponsored him and a number of other Surrealists in escaping Europe and coming to America. Breton’s ambivalence toward Sage created tension in the relationship and probably influenced the way Tanguy felt about her and treated her. Their relationship was likely one of abuse and codependency. There is a truism that in all relationships, one partner gives more love than is returned, and the person who loves less holds all the power. So complete was Sage’s blind admiration of Tanguy that she lost herself in him and “gave up the burden of herself” (Suther, 153). She was in denial about the imbalances in her relationship with Tanguy and either didn’t realize or wouldn’t acknowledge it (Suther, 148). Sage is the reversal of the Surrealist tendency for women to come into their own artistically once they have separated from their partners. She identified with Tanguy so deeply that when he died she ceased to paint and slipped into a despondency that ultimately ended in her suicide. As a Surrealist widow, Sage had received some respect from the Surrealist crowd, but it was too little, too late. She was by then physically and emotionally distanced from them. Despite her generosity, she had always remained “persona non grata” within the surrealist circles whose endorsements she most coveted (Suther, 143). While Sage never received the acceptance she longed for, Kahlo was courted by Breton and refused to take part because she was so unimpressed with the Surrealists after she visited Paris. She may also have been uncomfortable with the attention Breton lavished on her and wanted to avoid the spotlight, as to avoid overshadowing her husband. Kahlo always demurred and downplayed any attention that her work received in order to play the role of the submissive wife of the genius painter. This role however, was a facade that Kahlo consciously created, and unlike Sage, she played it to her advantage, thus acquiring a certain amount of power within the relationship. It is possible that Kahlo was even the stronger and more powerful partner. Not only did she support his work without question, but she also took care of him, and nurtured or mothered him. In a sense despite their 20 year age difference and their size difference, by assuming a parental role and treating him as a child, this gave her some advantage. Kahlo enjoyed other advantages that Sage did not. Rivera was generally very supportive of her work. His respect for her as an artist showed in his public admiration and encouragement. He proclaimed that she was the better painter of two, and took her criticisms of his work seriously. But this encouragement goes only so far. Rivera never promoted Kahlo’s or went out of his way to make exhibition opportunities to her. It is possible, that like Tanguy, he harbored jealousy toward her work, and his ego would not allow him to be upstaged by a woman, even Frida. In addition to her role as the supportive wife, she also played the role of the heroic sufferer. In addition to the physical pain she suffered, Rivera’s infidelities and overblown ego could be psychologically painful. Frida expressed this pain in her paintings that showed her broken body and her broken soul. Kahlo doubtlessly had a martyr syndrome. To gain power in the relationship she used her pain as a way to gain attention and sympathy. Certain accounts of her life suggest that some of the surgeries she submitted to may not have been fully necessary, but she endured them because her in her weakened state she could get and hold Rivera’s attention and sympathy. In other words she used her physical weaknesses as a way to overpower the large, powerful Rivera. When she was at her most physically frail, he was easiest to manipulate. Neither Kahlo nor Sage received the recognition they deserved while they were alive. Neither permitted their work to conflict or compete with their husband’s. But Kahlo, like Carrington had the ability to step back from their personal situation and see it with some perspective. Sage was unable to do this and therefore may have suffered the most. BIBLIOGRAPHY
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