A small snake embraces the wearer’s ear, not as a passive adornment but an active creature that looks back at the viewer with glinting green eyes. Meret Oppenheim delighted in the annual carnival celebrations in Basel; she collected traditional masks and made costumes of her own, with an interest in how the wearer could be transformed. Here the person wearing the snake ear cuff may take on the sinuousness and stealth of the reptile. The snake’s narrow tail wraps around the ear, as can be seen in the illustration of 1936, a gesture that is protective yet a little menacing.
Meret Oppenheim (1913-1985) was an artist like no other. She found early fame with the Surrealists, but she would transcend that group to become one of the most important Swiss cultural figures of the 20th century…
