Valentine Hugo

About

Entering the Surrealist circle around 1928-1929, Hugo became one of the first women to participate actively, exhibiting from 1933 at Salon des Surindépendants, Galerie Pierre Colle, and international shows including MoMA in 1936. A major illustrator of Paul Éluard's poetry, she created surrealist objects like Objet à fonctionnement symbolique (1931), collage-paintings, lithographs, and participated in Exquisite Corpse. Romantically linked to Éluard and André Breton, her marriage ended in divorce around 1931-1932. Post-WWII, she focused on book illustrations, theater designs, and writing until her death, with a retrospective in Troyes in 1977. Her work is held in collections like MoMA, Art Institute of Chicago, and National Gallery of Art.

Surrealism