Soon after René Drouin and Leo Castelli opened their gallery on the Place Vendôme in Paris in 1939 they invited artists, including Max Ernst and Alberto Giacometti, to take part in an exhibition of fantastical furniture. One of Meret Oppenheim’s contributions to the show was this table with bird’s feet, which has now been reproduced in a final approved edition. Marks of large bird feet can be traced on the gilt, oval table top, as if fleeting imprints had been fossilized, but the great interloper is no longer in sight. Beneath this, however, the table legs end in huge brass claws poised to run away, suggesting that the domestic realm can harbour unexpected, independent, bodies.
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…
