Coffee With a Curator: Margo Hammond
March 1, 2023

In the Surrealist canon, the female figure is the supreme symbol for all that is erotic and, above all, creative, but actual women in the movement’s orbit often did not get the recognition they deserved. In honor of Women’s History Month, join writer and editor Margo Hammond as she takes a fresh look at these Surreal women who challenged female stereotypes. Model and singer Amanda Lear, Dalí’s longtime companion, kept people guessing about her gender. Art patron Gertrude Stein who is usually labeled a lesbian, dressed like a man and unabashedly identified herself with male genius. Photographer Claude Cahun lived with a woman but rejected both the terms masculine and feminine. Painter Leonor Fini insisted on living with two men, one her lover, the other her friend. Come hear their stories.

Margo Hammond, former book editor for the St. Petersburg Times, has served as a National Book Critics Circle board member and as president of the Southern Book Critics Circle. She wrote a weekly travel column for the The York Times Syndicate and worked at The Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Star, and the Baltimore Sun. She lives in St. Petersburg, Florida.