Mimi Parent

Mimi Parent (born Marie Parent; September 8, 1924 – June 14, 2005) was a Canadian surrealist artist. For many years she lived and worked in Paris, France. Her art is known for its symbolism, and the metaphorical use of existing objects, including human hair.

Early life

Marie Parent was born in Montreal, Canada. She was the eighth of the nine children of architect Lucien Parent. Between 1942 and 1947 she studied art at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal where she met her future husband, fellow art student Jean Benoît. While she was there, she studied with Alfred Pellan who influenced Parent's work. Parent was later expelled from the school after joining a controversial artists' group, called Prisme d’yeux.

Career In Canada, Parent identified with the Surrealist movement, as well as automatism. In 1959 she became a member of the Paris Surrealist Group. Parent associated with other surrealist artists, such as Andre Breton and Marcel Duchamp. Parent participated in the International Surrealist Exhibition, devoted to Eros. One of her well known pieces Maitresse, 1996, was a whip, with the lash being composed of two braids of her hair. the Montreal Standard and the Montreal Herald - along with the Ottawa Citizen. The Montreal Herald and the Ottawa Citizen spoke of her role as the first woman in the Prisme d'yeux group and of Alfred Pellan, her teacher along with Jacques de Tonnancour at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal. Pellan and Jacques de Tonnancour wrote brief notes about her in the catalogue of the show. In 1947, she received the Cézanne medal.

That year, she married Benoit, and the two moved to Paris. On December 2, 1959, she participated in Jean Benoit's performance, L’Execution du testament du marquis de Sade, a ceremony in which Benoit brands the letters SADE in his chest while dressed with accessories representing Eros and Thanatos. This ceremony established the two as centers of the Parisian surrealist group, led by Andre Breton. Between 1964 and 1967, they participated together in many soirees at the Le Ranelagh theatre in Paris, and in 1965, exhibited at the "L'Ecart absolu" exposition. She exhibited at the "Surrealist intrusion into the Enchanter's Domain" in New York in 1960 and in 1966 had a solo exhibition at the "Maya" gallery in Brussels. She also exhibited in Chicago, London, Lausanne and Frankfurt. She assisted with the organization of the "Exposition inteRnatiOnale du Surréalisme" (EROS), which ran in Paris from December 1959 to the following February; although this is often attributed to Duchamp, she came up with the ideas for the exhibit catalogue, titled Boite Alerte – Missives Lascives, which was presented as a green box into which ideas could be 'posted'.

Parent lived and worked in Paris, France and continued creating art in her later years. Following Andre Breton's death and the Paris Surrealist Group's disbandment, Parent went on to create what she referred to as “picture objects”. These included a mix between found objects sculptures and paintings. held a retrospective in which she and Jean Benoit were the subjects. She died June 14, 2005, in Switzerland and her ashes were scattered by Benoît at Château de Lacoste, the estate of the Marquis de Sade in Haute-Provence.