Idilio’s Dreams: Grete Stern’s Surrealist Photomontages

Abstract

The following paper proposes analyzing Grete Stern’s photomontages that illustrated an agony from the psychological-sentimental consulting “El psicoanálisis te ayudará”, published in the magazine widely known as Idilio, which was an Argentinian popular editorial from the ‘40s, dedicated to a female audience. The discussed criticisms these pictures were given –including some specialized journalistic reviews or articles mentioned in the author’s masterpieces catalogues– attach these photographs to a surreal focus. The main achievement is to examine the reaches of that proposal from several surreal clues presented in the artist’s production. Moreover, the relationship these elements state with other artistic languages and its release in a popular magazine are also of relevant concern. The mentioned affairs will be covered, focusing on the study of the next four interrelated topics: the photomontage’s usage as a technique; the oneiric setting and the Psychoanalysis; the gender’s issue; and the connection between art and mass culture.