The Surrealist artist Dora Maar is better known as Picasso's dark-haired model and companion in the late 1930s than for her astonishing works. Her incarnation of the bestial nature of man is titled after the infamous and absurd dictatorial antihero of Alfred Jarry's play Ubu Roi (1896). Maar's imaginative evocation of the pear-shaped, breast-plated Ubu in the monstrous reality of a baby armadillo is one of the most compelling and repellent of Surrealist photographs.
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Inscription: Signed and dated in pencil on mount, recto BR: "Dora Maar 36" inscribed in pencil on mount, recto BL: "Portrait d'Ubu" [underlined]; paper label with red border affixed to BR corner mount recto with inscription in red pencil: "71"; inscribed in pencil on paper label affixed to mount, verso TR: "45" and stamped "210"; circular stamp on mount, verso TC: "Duanes Exposition - Paris" [upside-down]; stamped below label on mount, verso: "GALERIE ROBERT // keizersgracht 5 & 7 // AMSTERDAM - C"
Georges Hugnet; Private Collection, New York; [Mark Kelman Works of Art, New York, by 1978]; Gilman Paper Company Collection, New York, May 10, 1978
New Burlington Galleries. "International Surrealist Exhibition," June 1936–July 1936.
Ginza Gallery. "Exposition Internationale du Surrealisme," June 1937–July 1937.
Galerie Robert, Amsterdam. "Exposition Internationale du Surrealisme," June 1937–Spring 1938.
Washington, DC. Corcoran Gallery of Art. "L'Amour Fou: photography & surrealism," September 14, 1985–November 17, 1985.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "L'Amour Fou: photography & surrealism," December 13, 1985–February 1986.
Paris. Centre Georges Pompidou. "L'Amour Fou: photography & surrealism," April 15, 1986–June 16, 1986.
Nassau County Museum of Art. "Surrealism," January 15, 1995–April 16, 1995.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Modern Times: Photography Between the Two World Wars," June 9–October 4, 1998.
Haus der Kunst München. "Dora Maar–Pablo Picasso: A Dangerous Liason," October 12, 2001–January 13, 2002.
Centre de la Vielle Charité. "Dora Maar–Pablo Picasso: A Dangerous Liason," February 7, 2002–April 3, 2002.
Nassau County Museum of Art. "Surrealism - Europe and America: Unconscious Discoveries and Conscious Creations," May 26, 2007–August 12, 2007.
Vancouver Art Gallery. "The Colour of My Dreams: Surrealism and Revolution in Art," May 28, 2011–October 2, 2011.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Fatal Attraction: Piotr Uklański Selects from the Met Collection," March 17–June 14, 2015.
Morgan Library & Museum. "Alfred Jarry: Prophet of the Avant-Garde," January 24, 2020–August 16, 2020.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Surrealism Beyond Borders," October 11, 2021–January 30, 2022.
Apraxine, Pierre. Photographs from the Collection of the Gilman Paper Company. Reeds Springs, Mo.: White Oak Press, 1985. pl. 187.
Ades, Dawn, ed. The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 2011. p. 179.
Uklański, Piotr. Piotr Uklański: Fatal Attraction. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 2015. p. 197.
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