Hélène de Beauvoir: The Woman Destroyed

Hélène de Beauvoir: The Woman Destroyed
24th January, 2025 – 2nd March, 2025
Amar Gallery
12–14 Kirkman House
Lower Ground
Whitfield Street
London
W1T 2RF

Hélène de Beauvoir: The Woman Destroyed, the first-ever solo exhibition of Hélène de Beauvoir’s work in London. Often overshadowed by her older sister, the writer Simone de Beauvoir, this exhibition features paintings and works on paper from the 1950s to 1980s. Amar Gallery’s founder, Amar Singh, was recently described by The Telegraph as a “farsighted art dealer” for consistently discovering overlooked artists and being the first gallerist to show work of artist Lynne Drexler in London.

The Woman Destroyed is an exhibition that took Singh three years to put together, sourcing works from around the world, meeting patrons of de Beauvoir, and discovering how important de Beauvoir was to her sister and the global feminist movement.

Editor Annalisa Tacoli notes Picasso was an admirer of Hélène’s paintings. Picasso became familiar with de Beauvoir’s work when the artist had her first solo exhibition in Paris in 1936 at Galerie Jacques Bonjean, a gallery cofounded by Christian Dior, who began his career as an art dealer before becoming a fashion powerhouse. Galerie Bonjean also exhibited the work of Picasso, Braque, Dalí, and, much like Hélène, even gave Leonor Fini her first solo exhibition.

In Tout compte fait (1972), one of Simone de Beauvoir‘s autobiographical works, she wrote that collaborating with Hélène was something she had long wished for.

In 1967, 143 first-edition copies of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Woman Destroyed were published by Gallimard with sixteen etchings by Hélène. First editions of this book are extremely rare, and one copy will be on view at Amar Gallery. This incredibly important book in feminist ideology was the first time the de Beauvoir sisters collaborated together. Publisher Gallimard was afraid that the publication of such “feminine” literature would give it the mark of a publisher intent on overturning the social order.

The main themes covered in Simone de Beauvoir’s The Woman Destroyed are echoed in the individual memoirs of the de Beauvoir sisters, with particular regard to their mother’s confined domestic life in their family home in the rue de Rennes, Paris, and Simone’s later experience as the second woman in her relationship with philosopher, novelist, and political activist Jean-Paul Sartre.

Referring to her sister, Hélène wrote, “I was her first reader … and I would draw” in her book Souvenirs, where she recalls how, in the early years, she came to choose the vocation of artist, whilst her elder sister preferred to write. In 1964, Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, which he rejected as he did not wish to be “transformed” by such an award. After rejecting the award, Sartre tried to escape the media by hiding in the house of Hélène in Goxwiller, Alsace.

Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir remained close with Hélène, regularly attending her exhibitions and immersing her with their electric circle, including Cocteau and Lionel de Roulet, whom Hélène married.

Claudine Monteil, the women’s rights specialist who knew both Simone and Hélène, details in her book The Beauvoir Sisters that the two sisters shared a close bond and artistic influence on one another but also experienced jealousy and rivalry. Monteil highlights how these two remarkable women came together to help launch the modern women’s movement and make a mark on the world.

HÉLÈNE DE BEAUVOUR IN SELECTED COLLECTIONS & MUSEUMS

Centre Pompidou
Uffizi Museum, Florence
Oxford University
Musée Würth France Erstein
Museum of modern and contemporary art of the City of Strasbourg
The royal library of the Netherlands

Hélène de Beauvoir: The Woman Destroyed opens on the 24th of January, 2025 until the 2nd of March, 2025 at Amar Gallery

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