It's hard to imagine not jumping at a personal invitation from Salvador Dalí to join his artist crew in officially pioneering Surrealism, but Leonor Fini, a now little-known Argentine-Italian artist, was always one to defy expectations—starting with the sheer fact that she was a woman. While Fini maintained friendships with her almost entirely male artist counterparts, she steadfastly rejected not only the woman-as-muse views of the movement's leader, André Breton, but also art history's centuries-old approach to one of its most popular subjects—the female nude. (Not to mention any notions of gender norms, which are of course still popular to this day.) As much as Fini stood out at the time, though, it's only now, more than two decades after her death, that the artist is getting her due. Her first-ever American museum survey, "Leonor Fini: Theatre of Desire, 1930-1990," which is on view at the Museum of Sex in New York through May 2019, showcases just how much Fini's often humorous work differs from your usual erotica; decades before any discussion of the so-called "female gaze," Fini was known for upending the very concept of the nude in art by objectifying the men, not the women, in her paintings—an approach since embraced by the likes of Andy Warhol and Madonna. Take a look, here.
Photograph of Leonor Fini in Arcachon, 1940. Featured in the exhibition "Leonor Fini: Theatre of Desire, 1930-1990," on view at the Museum of Sex in New York through May 2019.
Leonor Fini, The Alcove/Self-Portrait with Nico Papatakis (L’Alcôve/Autoportrait avec Nico Papatakis), 1941. Featured in the exhibition "Leonor Fini: Theatre of Desire, 1930-1990," on view at the Museum of Sex in New York through May 2019.
Leonor Fini, The Blind Ones (Les Aveugles), 1968. Featured in the exhibition "Leonor Fini: Theatre of Desire, 1930-1990," on view at the Museum of Sex in New York through May 2019.
Photograph of Leonor Fini in Paris, circa 1938. Featured in the exhibition "Leonor Fini: Theatre of Desire, 1930-1990," on view at the Museum of Sex in New York through May 2019.
Leonor Fini, Male Nude/Portrait of Nico Papatakis (Nu/Portrait de Nico Papatakis), 1942. Featured in the exhibition "Leonor Fini: Theatre of Desire, 1930-1990," on view at the Museum of Sex in New York through May 2019.
Leonor Fini In the tower (Dans la tour), 1952. Featured in the exhibition "Leonor Fini: Theatre of Desire, 1930-1990," on view at the Museum of Sex in New York through May 2019.
Photograph of Leonor Fini, Max Ernst, and Enrico Colombotto Rosso in Nonza, Corsica, circa 1965. Featured in the exhibition "Leonor Fini: Theatre of Desire, 1930-1990," on view at the Museum of Sex in New York through May 2019.
Leonor Fini, The Botany Lesson (La Leçon de botanique), 1974. Featured in the exhibition "Leonor Fini: Theatre of Desire, 1930-1990," on view at the Museum of Sex in New York through May 2019.
Leonor Fini, Woman in Armor I (Femme en armure I), circa 1938. Featured in the exhibition "Leonor Fini: Theatre of Desire, 1930-1990," on view at the Museum of Sex in New York through May 2019.
Photograph of Leonor Fini in Nonza, Corsica, 1967. Featured in the exhibition "Leonor Fini: Theatre of Desire, 1930-1990," on view at the Museum of Sex in New York through May 2019.
Leonor Fini, Portrait of a Woman with Acanthus Leaves (Portrait de femme aux feuilles d’acanthe), 1946. Featured in the exhibition "Leonor Fini: Theatre of Desire, 1930-1990," on view at the Museum of Sex in New York through May 2019.
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