What an incredible honor to have in our gallery masterpieces by some of the most celebrated artists in the history of 20th century art. Undeniably, these are figures who have made major contributions to our imaginations, and our understandings of both ourselves and the people around us. Still, something is not quite right. Why is this a show exclusively of women artists? Do they still, in the year 2001, not quite stand shoulder to shoulder with their male contemporaries? Why are their names not ubiquitously recognized as are Dali, Magritte, Ernst and Tanguy? Perhaps it is a tired, weathered injustice, but it is a fact that art history has overlooked or greatly diminished the roles of these formidable artists and their oeuvres. We believe that the only reason that the names Fini, Tanning, Carrington, and Snead are not indelibly etched on the imaginations of most Americans is that they are women. This cannot stand. Many of them feel or felt that a "woman only" exhibition like this one only perpetuates the biased gender politics surrounding creative expression. One piece of Fini lore has her refusing to headline a significant museum show of women artists, stating the she "didn't do harem shows." Fini and many of her contemporaries nobly wish to actualize a state of affairs in which the power and importance of a work of art is the sole measure by which it is evaluated and enjoyed. The rubric of "Woman Surrealist" rings both inaccurate and confining. In a spirit similar to that expressed by Professor Chadwick in the forward to her book Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement we at this gallery humbly disagree, at least for the present. We believe that in an effort to right these historical inequalities, we must shine the spotlight exclusively on these incredible women artists. It is these gender-based inequalities that have kept these figures on the peripheries of Surrealism's story, and Surrealism is the most influential artistic movement of the 20th century. These artists will have their due. Categories, however flawed, become inevitable. In spite of this, we stand at a new dawn of historical reevaluation, both of Surrealism in general and of its most ardent and prolific contributors, many of whom were women. The host of recent and future museum exhibitions focusing on Surrealism clearly bares this out, as does the volume of scholarship on artists like the ones in this show.

Quietly, Tanning and Carrington, still both leading vigorous artistic lives, have made themselves part of every major Surrealist exhibition since they entered the Surrealist milieu in the 1930's and 40's. Fini, arguably the greatest iconoclast, the most ferociously and heroically independent woman artist of the 20th century, alienated many who could have promoted her career here in America. She had quite a temper. Ironically, since her death in 1996, America has grown fully aware of this woman's complete genius. Her ability in oils, watercolors, gouache, etching, lithography, virtually all two dimensional media, plus costume and set design, is remarkable. Her work was strongly represented at two Guggenheim shows in 1998-99, and she will be included, along with Tanning and Carrington in an exhibition now opening at the Tate in London and travelling to the Metropolitan in New York City. Fini's influence on not only the great male Surrealists, but an entire younger generation of artists, is irrefutable. We are awed to have such a comprehensive variety of her work at the heart of our exhibition. Snead, after falling into a terrible depression in 1951, was simply overlooked, unjustly forgotten, till a powerful desire urged her to again pick up a brush more than forty years later. After Carrington's departure with Max Ernst to Paris in 1939, Snead became Amedée Ozenfant's star pupil, a beacon of originality and vision for Surrealism in England. In the late 1990's, the New York dealer Neil Zukerman was deeply impressed by her paintings and mounted a large and comprehensive retrospective in 1999.

We are immensely grateful for the help and cooperation of a number of knowledgeable individuals, namely Dr. Solomon Grimberg, Professor Whitney Chadwick, Richard Overstreet, Arlette Souhami and Neil Zukerman. Thanks must also go to dozens of others who helped with the assemblage of this show, the production of this catalogue and with their unflinching enthusiasm for these artists. And in gratitude to the women artists shown here, we say thank you for your timeless visions. We promise that we will do what we can to demonstrate that you were and are at the zenith of the broader vision that the world has coined "Surrealism."