These Women are Starting the Conversation Through Painted Visions of Sex

Sarah Slappey, Cloud Tangle, 2020 via artsy.net is a surrealist work of art featuring pink feminine body features and white strands with pearls throughout.

Sarah Slappey, Cloud Tangle, 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Sargent’s Daughters via Artsy.net

Women surrealist artists are breaking barriers of how eroticism functions in the world of art and critiquing modern society’s view of sex and the body. Artists such as Ambera Wellmann, Madeleine Roger-Lacan, Naudline Pierre, and Sarah Slappey have been at the forefront of the resurgence of this movement originating from artists such as Frida Kahlo and Dorothea Tanning in the 1940s, but with a modern twist. Their artistic expressions urge the viewer to dive deeper into the anxieties and experiences of womanhood and observe the ways gender exerts power over our bodies. Artist Sarah Slappley says she aims to make art that expresses women’s bodies in ways that are “too much for audiences to bear,” allowing the viewer to witness the inherent discomfort and alienation that comes with sex. These more nuanced portrayals of the body and sexuality are opening doors for important dialogue regarding what it means to be a sexual woman in society.

Madeleine Roger-Lacan, Fente, 2022 is a surrealist painting with a hot pink painted background with an opening similar to a vaginal opening showing two lovers embracing and kissing