Penelope Rosemont

Penelope Rosemont went to Paris and attended surrealist group meetings with André Breton and his group for five months in 1966. Mimi Parent, Toyen, Joyce Mansour were active members of this group and friends. She spent an afternoon in discussion with Guy Debord; was introduced to Aimé Césaire at Présence Africane Bookstore and visited CLR James in Brixton. She co-organized a Surrealist Group in the U.S. with Franklin Rosemont. Writer and painter, her painting the Marriage of Heaven and Hell was in the Venice Biennale, 1986 chosen by Arturo Schwarz.

 

An advocate for the recognizing the importance of women surrealists, she edited Surrealist Women: An International Anthology (University of Texas Press, Austin, 1998); also published by Athalone, London. In her research she found over a hundred women who had been active participants in Surrealism. Myrna Rochester, who wrote on René Crevel, contributed to the translation and editing of this 576 page volume.

 

Her paintings appeared recently in the exhibitions: "Revolutionary Imagination: Chicago Surrealism from Object to Activism," 2018 and "Dada Chicago" 2016. She presented a paper on "Pan-Africanism, Négritude: Ted Joans and Jayne Cortez" at the ISSS (International Society for the Study of Surrealism) 2018 Conference. She continues to be active in the surrealist movement and is in touch with surrealist groups in Madrid, London, Prague, etc. Her book of essays Surrealism: Inside the Magnetic Fields was published in Fall 2019 by City Lights Publishers in San Francisco. 

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