1934:
Franziska Müller started working with oil paints in her first year at art school in Mexico. "Fleeing" was presented at the foundation year exhibition at the Academy of San Carlos.
"Fleeing", Franziska Müller, 1934, oil on canvas, 30cm x 30cm
1940:
The International Surrealist Exhibition in Mexico City in 1940 was “utopian in tone” and drew on the “dream potentialities” of culture (Greet, 40). Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo were prominent artists that were featured in the International Surrealist Exhibition (Greet, 38). Müller’s 2 works were shown in the international section of the exhibition. Critics at the time of the exhibition perceived the exhibition as “sensationalistic,” that surrealism art was “rose colored, something chic, it doesn’t hurt anyone, something of good taste” (Greet, 42). Scholars have now written about surrealism in Mexico as a movement, and that this exhibition was transformative for the period (Greet, 42).
Installation Photograph of the “Exposición Internacional del Surrealismo” (International Surrealist Exhibiton), Galería de Arte Mexicano, Mexico City, 1940. Cortesía Galería de Arte Mexicano /Courtesy of Galeria de Arte Mexicano
Pictured below - Franziska Müller's two works shown at the exhibition were created around the time of her final studies at Academy of San Carlos (1939). She had created surrealist art using an innovative approach with oil painting and montage.
"Shield-hand", Franziska Müller, 1939, oil paint montage on board, 15"x 21"
Surrealist artists were influenced by Sigmund Freud’s theories of the unconscious mind. The representation of dreamscapes functioned as a revolutionary tool to free one's mind from a repressive unconscious. Muller’s "Shield-Hand" and "Insula" can be understood through Freud’s explanation of the dream-work. Two aspects of the dream-work being: condensation which is the connection of multiple elements relating to one component, and displacement being the shifting of focus on elements and the substitution of elements with symbols. “Insula” meaning island and “Shield-Hand” being the name for a goddess of rebirth, these works can be interpreted as Muller’s longing for a new home isolated from her life experience of political turmoil and abrupt separation from her family. Both pieces are dense with detail of urban landscape which is a substitute for her missing familial connection, but it is in contrast with the need for isolation.
"Insula", Franziska Müller, 1939, oil paint montage on board, 15"x 21"