TALK ING POINTS
was involved in left-wing politics,
and between commercial shoots
she would take to the streets to
document economic hardship in
1930s Europe. She visited the out-
s k i r t s o f P a r i s , a s w e l l a s B a r c e l o n a
and London, aiming her lens
at vulnerable members of soc-
iety. Her portraits of the blind
chime with the surrealists’ fasci-
nation with eyes and the inner
gaze, while her disorienting shots
of daily life – a man doubled over,
ducking his head into a manhole,
for example – conjure up some of
the mystery associated with the
movement. The surrealists shared
Maar’s political leanings and she
was one of the few photogra-
phers to contribute work – mainly
consisting of photomontages and
images of found objects – to their
exhibitions and journals.
Maar met Picasso at a film
screening in the winter of 1935;
she was thriving, while he was
emerging from what he described as ‘the worst
time of my life’ (Marie-Thérèse Walter, with
whom he had been having an affair since 1927,
was pregnant, and his marriage to Olga Khokh-
lova was over). Their relationship endured for
eight years, during which time Maar taught
Picasso the technique for cliché verre (a com-
bination of photography and printing) and
documented his creation of Guernica (1937); she
also reportedly inspired him to turn the sun that originally appeared
in the piece into an electric light. He painted her 60 times, using
her as a motif for Weeping Woman (1937), though she never sat for
him. ‘All his portraits of me are
lies,’ she said. ‘They’re all Picassos,
not one is Dora Maar.’ She too
dabbled in painting, producing
portraits of him, and her own
versions of his work, in return.
It was not until the 1940s –
a dark period for Maar, during
which her father left for Argent-
ina, her mother died and her
relationship with Picasso ended –
that she turned to painting in
earnest. During the war, she
produced intimate still-lifes with
a muted palette that reflected her
experience of the Occupation. In
contrast to Picasso, she favoured
simple vignettes that focused
on everyday objects: a solitary
lamp on a shadowy tabletop,
for example.
After the war, Maar moved
between Paris and Provence,
where she painted increasingly
abstract impressions of the surrounding land-
scape – melancholy scenes devoid of people.
These evocative works were exhibited to great
acclaim in the 1950s, before she gradually with-
drew from artistic circles because of her struggle
with depression. However, Maar never stopped
working, and in the 1980s – four decades after
relinquishing photography – she returned to the
darkroom, creating a series of imaginative photo-
grams (prints made without the use of a camera)
that are testament to her enduring spirit of exp-
erimentation. Today, Tate
Modern shines a light on
her life – a life devoted to
art and the search for the surreal.
‘Dora Maar’ is at Tate Modern (www.tate.org.uk)
from 20 November to 15 March 2020.‘Model in
Swimsuit’
(1936)Maar’s
‘Untitled
(Pablo
Picasso)’
(1936)BOOKS
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F
RAME
SThis is the evocative scene that Carol Ann Duffy, Britain’s former Poet Laureate,
conjures up in her new poem Frost Fair, set in the Great Winter of 1683. Inspired
by the festivities held on the frozen River Thames in centuries past, the verse
follows our narrator as she journeys ‘from Spitalfields/by way of London
Bridge to Southwark’, marvelling at the sight of ‘a hundred dancing fires’,
visiting a fortune-teller and drinking brandy with a group of players. Unfolding
over the pages of a beautifully illustrated book, Duffy’s enchanting lines
celebrate the drama and delight of winter in the capital. FRANCES HEDGES
‘Frost Fair’ (£7.99, Picador) is published on 31 October.‘Vendors sold gingerbread, black pudding, snuff,
plum cake , brandy balls , hot pudding, pies.
I found a Fuddling Tent and drank spiced rum .’‘Untitled (Still Life with
Jar and Cup)’ (1945)