{{Short description|Canadian artist (1924–2005)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2022}} {{Infobox person | image = Mimi_Parent_crop.jpg | caption = Parent {{circa|1948}} | birth_name = Marie Parent | birth_date = {{Birth date|1924|9|8}} | birth_place = Montreal, Canada | death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|2005|6|14|1924|9|8}} | death_place = Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland | occupation = Artist | spouse = {{Marriage|Jean Benoît|1948}} | father = Lucien Parent }} '''Mimi Parent''' (born '''Marie Parent'''; September 8, 1924{{spnd}}June 14, 2005) was a Canadian surrealist artist.<ref name="tce " >{{cite web | title = Parent, Mimi | publisher = The Canadian Encyclopedia | url = https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mimi-parent | access-date = December 21, 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160305005817/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/mimi-parent/ | archive-date = March 5, 2016 | url-status = live }}</ref> 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.<ref name="DhennequinGernez2009 " >{{cite book|author1=Laurent Dhennequin|author2=Guillaume Gernez|author3=Jessica Giraud|title=Objets et symboles: de la culture matérielle à l'espace culturel: actes de la 1re Journée doctorale d'archéologie, Paris, 20 mai 2006|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XmZ2bCaE_fMC&pg=PA52|year=2009|publisher=Publications de la Sorbonne|isbn=978-2-85944-622-2|page=52}}</ref><ref name="Minissale2013 " >{{cite book|author=Gregory Minissale|title=The Psychology of Contemporary Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AavqAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA172|date=October 10, 2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-47009-5|page=172}}</ref><ref name="Noheden2017 " >{{cite book|author=Kristoffer Noheden|title=Surrealism, Cinema, and the Search for a New Myth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wjUqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA144|date=June 28, 2017|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-55501-0|page=144}}</ref>
==Early life== [[File:Mimi Parent.jpg|thumb|left|Lucien Parent's children.]] Marie Parent was born in Montreal, Canada.<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-ma-tresse-1996-by-mimi-parent-8226862.html "Great Works: Maîtresse, 1996, by Mimi Parent"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704212847/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-ma-tresse-1996-by-mimi-parent-8226862.html |date=July 4, 2018 }}. ''The Independent'', Michael Glover, October 27, 2012</ref> 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.<ref name="MWilliamson " >{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/mimi-parent-294657.html|title=Mimi Parent, "Incorrigibly wild" Surrealist|last=Williamson|first=Marcus|date=June 25, 2005|work=The Independent|access-date=March 6, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190307053949/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/mimi-parent-294657.html|archive-date=March 7, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> While she was there, she studied with Alfred Pellan who influenced Parent's work.<ref name=":0 " /> It was noted by some that she was an unruly student.<ref name="Mimi Parent " >{{Cite web|date=April 29, 2013|title=Mimi Parent|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/mimi-parent-294657.html|access-date=April 20, 2021|website=The Independent|language=en}}</ref> Parent was later expelled from the school after joining a controversial artists' group, called Prisme d’yeux.<ref name=":0 " >{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/jul/06/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries|title=Obituary: Mimi Parent|last=Mahon|first=Alyce|date=July 5, 2005|work=The Guardian|access-date=March 4, 2019|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306044000/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/jul/06/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries|archive-date=March 6, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Career== In Canada, Parent identified with the Surrealist movement, as well as automatism. In 1959 she became a member of the Paris Surrealist Group.<ref name=":1 " >{{Cite book|title=Surrealist Women: an International Anthology|url=https://archive.org/details/surrealistwomeni00rose|url-access=registration|last=Rosemont|first=Penelope|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=1998}}</ref> Parent associated with other surrealist artists, such as Andre Breton and Marcel Duchamp. Parent participated in the International Surrealist Exhibition, devoted to Eros.<ref name=":1 " /> During 1964–1967, Parent made Anti-Gaullist posters, and she was involved in protests in Paris in May 1968.<ref name=":0 " /> Parent illustrated books for Guy Cabanel and Jose Pierre.<ref name=":0 " />
Parent was most known for her 3D tableaux boxes. In these boxes, Parent would include figures and elements relating to mythology, folklore, and her unconscious imagination.<ref name=":0 " /> Parent often incorporated elements of lunar and solar forces, representing masculinity and femininity. Parent was raised in a Catholic household, and her work showed influences of her faith and eroticism.<ref name=":0 " /> Parent incorporated materials such as human hair, in her art objects.<ref name=":2 " >{{Cite book|title=Psychology of Contemporary Art|last=Minissale|first=Gregory|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2013|pages=166–174}}</ref> One of her well known pieces ''Maitresse'', 1996, was a whip, with the lash being composed of two braids of her hair.<ref name=":2 " />
From September 24 to October 4, 1947, she had her first one-woman exhibition at the Dominion Gallery in Montreal which received favorable reviews from Montreal and Ottawa newspapers{{efn| the Montreal Gazette,<ref>"Mimi Parent's Work Has Cheerful Color". Montreal Gazette, September 27, 1947, Artist's File, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Ottawa</ref> the Montreal Standard<ref>Zoe Bieler, "Girl Artist, 23, Scores at 'One-Man' Exhibition". Montreal Standard, September 27, 1847, Artist's File, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Ottawa </ref> and the Montreal Herald<ref>May Ebbitt, "Young Montreal Artist Creates Sensation Here". Montreal Herald, October 4, 1947, Artist's File, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Ottawa</ref> - along with the Ottawa Citizen.<ref name="ngc files" >"Montreal Painter Would Rouse Canadian Artists". Ottawa Citizen, October 4, 1947, Artist's File, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Ottawa</ref>}} 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.<ref>Artist's File, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Ottawa</ref> In 1947, she received the Cézanne medal.<ref name="ngc files" /><ref name="MWilliamson " /> It included funds which allowed her to travel.<ref>{{cite web |title=Article |url=https://www.shuru-art.com/blogs/news/mimi-parent-the-artist-of-absolute-surrealism |website=www.shuru-art.com |access-date=16 August 2025}}</ref>
That year, she married Benoit, and the two moved to Paris.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/jul/06/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries "Mimi Parent, artiste surréaliste"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305091724/http://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/jul/06/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries |date=March 5, 2016 }}. ''Le Monde'', June 17, 2005.</ref><ref name="Marshall2005 " >{{cite book|author=Bill Marshall|title=France and the Americas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jfq5Tp0nq98C&pg=PA146|year=2005|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-411-0|page=146}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dagen|first=Philippe|date=1994|title=Le "Premier Artiste"|journal=Romantisme|volume=24|issue=84|pages=69–78|doi=10.3406/roman.1994.5952|issn=0048-8593}}</ref> 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'.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/parent-boite-alerte-t07621/text-summary|title='Boîte alerte' 1959|website=Tate|access-date=June 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160812041153/http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/parent-boite-alerte-t07621/text-summary|archive-date=August 12, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>
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.<ref name="Mimi Parent " /> Then, her art medium turned to ink drawings.<ref name=":0 " /> She had many solo exhibitions throughout her life (Galerie André-François Petit, Paris, 1984; Museum Bochum, 1984; Noyers-sur-Serein, 1992) and was active as an artist until the end of her days. Her most notable shows included ''Femininmasculin'', at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 1995, ''La femme Et Le Surrealisme'', in Lausanne in 1987, ''Surrealism: Desire Unbound'', at the Tate Modern in London in 2001 and ''Paris And The Surrealists'', in Barcelona in 2005. In the fall of 1998, Galerie 1900–2000 in Paris organized a retrospective of her work and in 2004, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec<ref>{{cite web|url=https://collections.mnbaq.org/fr/artiste/600000418|title=Mimi Parent|website=www.collections.mnbaq.org|access-date=January 18, 2020}}</ref> held a retrospective in which she and Jean Benoit were the subjects.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mimi-parent|title=Mimi Parent {{!}} The Canadian Encyclopedia|website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca|access-date=March 4, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190426022808/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mimi-parent|archive-date=April 26, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref>[http://www.cyberpresse.ca/arts/arts-visuels/201008/26/01-4309934-jean-benoit-seteint-a-paris.php Jean Benoît s'éteint à Paris | René Viau, collaboration spéciale | Arts visuels] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629004551/http://www.cyberpresse.ca/arts/arts-visuels/201008/26/01-4309934-jean-benoit-seteint-a-paris.php |date=June 29, 2011 }}. Cyberpresse.ca. Retrieved on February 25, 2011.</ref>
== Notes == {{notelist|30em}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2005/06/17/mimi-parent-artiste-surrealiste_663300_3382.html Obituary] in ''Le Monde'' (France) by Philippe Dagen * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060427044830/http://theexquisitecorpse.deviantart.com/journal/5867705/ TheExquisiteCorpse: Mimi Parent]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parent, Mimi}} Category:1924 births Category:2005 deaths Category:20th-century Canadian women artists Category:Artists from Montreal Category:Canadian multimedia artists Category:Canadian surrealist artists Category:École des beaux-arts de Montréal alumni Category:Women surrealist artists