"The Liberation of St Antonia"

portrays the theme of transsexuality. Along with early women surrealists, the artist uses the concept of the detailed self portrait to represent “self” – in contrast to male use of the anonymous man as ‘self’ (e.g. Magritte’s bowler hatted man), and woman as “other”.

Like earlier women surrealists, (e.g. Fini, Tanning, and Carrington) who protested male surrealist use of a naive femme-enfant as a sexually immature ‘muse’, the artist has portrayed the ‘self woman’ as possessing an air of self-confidence and awareness – she has determined her ‘inner and outer realities’.

In this painting the “self woman” has turned her back on the scissor bird (inspired by Max Ernst’s birdman character Loplop), which represents the male ‘other’ receding into the distance. The scissor bird has cut the ribbon on the subject’s arm, representing the cutting of ties often associated with transsexual transitioning - the thorns illustrate that cutting these ties is often painful.The cloak represents the “normality of society” which seeks to hide what does not conform – a major issue for early surrealists and transsexuals alike.

As the receding male ‘other’ draws the cloak away, the natural true self is revealed and the doorway to a new world opens. The colour of the cloak references St Anthony, whose cloak was often red in Renaissance paintings – hence Anthony is removed and Antonia is revealed.