Meret Oppenheim

Under the Raincloud

1961 – 1964

Meret Oppenheim was born in Berlin in 1913 and grew up in Steinen and Delémont, before moving to Paris in 1932, where she joined the Surrealists led by André Breton. After a creative crisis, she returned to Switzerland in 1937; from the 1950s onward, a new and particularly productive phase of her work began. In the 1960s, Oppenheim repeatedly returned to the motif of the cloud, condensing it into sharply contoured, tapered forms. In the upper part of 'Under the Rain Cloud', such a jagged mass of cloud, painted in shades of grey, is divided by fine, frame-like lines reminiscent of individual picture panels or windows. Beneath it rises a light-coloured, organically curved form, reminiscent of outstretched legs, horns or roots, which seems to support the cloud, ‘grounding’ it, as it were. The juxtaposition of hard and soft, pointed and round, floating and heavy – characteristic of Oppenheim’s work from this period – also defines this painting. The jagged, restless cloud in the upper section contrasts with the calm, closed form below, which appears both firmly anchored and almost weightlessly suspended above the background. This creates a tension between the fleeting and the enduring, between the ever-changing sky and the solid, supporting form beneath it. Translation generated using AI Original contribution by Katharina Nyffenegger in: Therese Bhattacharya-Stettler, Matthias Frehner (ed.), Meret Oppenheim – Retrospektive. «mit ganz enorm wenig viel», Hatje Cantz Verlag: Ostfildern, 2006, p. 226.

oil and gouache on plaster [rugosite] on wood, reinforced with hardboard [Pavatex] and textile [linen], original frame, oil on wood [spruce]

101 × 73 cm (Image)

Hermann und Margrit Rupf-Stiftung, Kunstmuseum Bern