Richard Saltoun Gallery Spotlights Surrealist Manina at Art Basel

At Art Basel, Richard Saltoun Gallery is presenting a monographic stand dedicated to Marianne Tischler, known as Manina, a largely overlooked Surrealist artist. André Breton once described her as speaking only of the true nature of things, calling her pure poetry and a born Surrealist. Born in Vienna in 1911, Manina moved through key moments of 20th-century European art, connecting with Breton, Victor Brauner, Max Ernst, and Leonora Carrington. She lived for many years in Venice, where she died in 2010. Her work features recurring symbols such as trees of life, shells, eggs, eyes, fish, and radiant suns, with female figures emerging from luminous color fields. After the violent death of her daughter in 1960, her art became more introspective and spiritual, drawing on alchemy, Jungian thought, and mystical traditions. The gallery's presentation aims to restore visibility to this long-neglected figure and reaffirm her role in Surrealism and 20th-century art.