Celebrating Meret Oppenheim

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Meret Oppenheim's symbolic "Breakfast in fur", Bremgarten Castle near Bern, 1954. (Keystone/Fotostiftung Schweiz/Kurt Blum) Kurt Blum/Fotostiftung Schweiz/Keystone

Oppenheim's famous fur cup, New York, 1936. (RDB) RDB

Meret Oppenheim in the Café du Commerce, Bern 1957. (Keystone/Fotostiftung Schweiz/Kurt Blum) Kurt Blum/Fotostiftung Schweiz/Keystone

At work in her studio in Oberhofen, canton Bern, in 1958. (Keystone) Walter Studer/Keystone

Interpreting nature and its way of life. Oppenheim (left) dresses up as a cow at a gathering of artists in Emmental, canton Bern, in 1966. (Siegfried Kuhn/RDB) Siegfried Kuhn/RDB

A portrait with tattoos, New York around 1980. (Heinz Günter Mebusch/RDB) Swiss Press/RDB

In 1983, a fountain designed by Oppenheim was unveiled in Bern. (Keystone) Keystone

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On the birthday of Swiss surrealist Meret Oppenheim, swissinfo.ch takes a look at some of her diverse oeuvre, which includes paintings, poems, lithographs, photographs and sculptures.

Oppenheim was born in Berlin on October 6, 1913, but the family moved to Switzerland the following year when her father was conscripted for World War I.

She moved to Paris in 1932 to become a painter and in 1936 gained fame with “Breakfast in fur”. The teacup covered in gazelle fur was the result of an encounter with Picasso and his mistress Dora Maar in which they decided that anything could be made out of fur.

However, she found the overnight fame overwhelming, so she retreated back to Switzerland where she spent the rest of her life working outside all stylistic conventions and refusing all labels.

Oppenheim, who died in Basel in 1985, is considered a trailblazer of the avant-garde.