Unica Zürn Exhibition at Halle Saint-Pierre Explores Surrealist's Dark Vision

A major exhibition of Unica Zürn's painted and drawn works opens at Halle Saint-Pierre in Paris from September 24, 2006 to March 4, 2007, introducing the German surrealist to a wider audience. Zürn (1916–1970) was the companion of Hans Bellmer from 1953 to 1970 and created automatic drawings and paintings depicting fantastic hybrid creatures, biomorphic forms, and constellations. Her literary works include Hexentexte (1954), Der Mann im Jasmin (1971), Dunkler Frühling (1970), and Vacances à Maison Blanche (2000). She suffered from severe mental illness, was interned multiple times, and committed suicide on October 19, 1970 by jumping from Bellmer's apartment. The exhibition coincides with the publication of Lettres à Ruth Henry, 1967-1970, a collection of Zürn's letters to her translator. Ruth Henry, a German-born journalist and translator, met Zürn in 1959 and translated her major works into German and French. Henry describes Zürn as a woman without pretense, unique, who kept the dream of purity from her childhood until her last day. Zürn's work is characterized by a concise, distanced style written in the third person. The exhibition is curated by Victoria Combalía, art history professor at the University of Barcelona and artistic advisor to the Comunidad de Madrid.