Collection online

Meret Oppenheim was born in Berlin (Charlottenburg) in 1913. She spent her youth in the Bernese Jura, southern Germany and Basel. In 1931 she decided to become an artist. She left grammar school and one year later took courses at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris where she came into contact with artists from the Surrealist circle around André Breton. She returned to Basel in 1937 and attended the Kunstgewerbeschule [School of Arts and Crafts] for two years. In the mid-1950s, she was plunged into a crisis triggered by self-doubt about her previous intuitive approach. After marrying Wolfgang La Roche she lived in Bern, Thun, Oberhofen and Hünibach. In 1954 she moved into a studio in Bern, and then to Paris in 1972. In 1975, she was awarded the Kunstpreis [Art Prize] of the City of Basel. In 1982, she was awarded the Große Preis Berlin [Berlin Art Prize] and was invited to take part in documenta 7. She died in Basel in 1985.