PARIS.- Retracing over 40 amazingly creative, effervescent years, from 1924 to 1969, the “Surrealism” exhibition celebrates the centenary of a movement born in 1924 with the publication of André Breton’s Manifeste du surréalisme.
Adopting a spiral or labyrinth layout, the exhibition radiates out from a central “drum” containing the original manuscript of the Manifeste du surréalisme, specially loaned out from the Bibliothèque nationale de France. An immersive audiovisual projection sheds light on its origins and meaning. The exhibition has been laid out chronologically and thematically, with 13 sections referring to the literary figures that inspired the movement (Lautréamont, Lewis Carroll and Sade, to name but a few), as well as the myths that lend structure to its poetic imaginary world (psychic artists, dreams, the philosopher’s stone, the forest etc.).
True to the multi-disciplinary principle of exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, the “Surrealism” exhibition features paintings, drawings, films, photographs and literary documents. It presents the iconic works of the movement, loaned by the main international public and private collections: The Great Masturbator by Salvador Dalí (Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid), Personal Values by René Magritte (SFMoMA, San Francisco), The Child’s Brain (Moderna Museet, Stockholm), Song of Love (MoMA, New York) by Giorgio de Chirico, The Large Forest by Max Ernst (Kunstmuseum, Basel), Dog Barking at the Moon by Joan Miró (Philadelphia Museum of Art), etc.
The exhibition gives considerable place to the many women who took part in the movement, with works by Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Ithell Colquhoun, Dora Maar and Dorothea Tanning. It also documents the movement’s global expansion, displaying the works of many international artists such as Tatsuo Ikeda (Japan), Helen Lundeberg (USA), Wilhelm Freddie (Denmark), Rufino Tamayo (Mexico) and others..
The Surrealists’s contestation of a model of civilisation rooted purely in technical rationality and their interest in cultures that had managed to preserve the principle of a unified world (culture of the Tarahumara discovered by Antonin Artaud, the Hopi studied by André Breton) testify to their modernity.
The official dissolution of Surrealism as a movement did not put an end to its influence in art and society. It continued to inspire biennales of contemporary art, film production, fashion and cartoons etc.
A new approach for a travelling exhibition
The “Surrealism” exhibition in Paris is initiating an all-new concept for touring exhibitions, with a reinterpretation of the exhibition to take account of the cultural and historic context of each venue (the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, the Fundación MAPFRE in Madrid, Spain, the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, Germany and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, US).
Brussels marked the beginning of the international itinerary of the tour, emphasising the ties between Surrealism and Symbolism. In Madrid, particular attention is paid to Iberian artists such as Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró and Luis Buñuel. In Hamburg, ties between Surrealism and German Romanticism are emphasised, while in Philadelphia, the exhibition turns the spotlight on Surrealist events in the Americas, especially in Latin America.
Apart from Paris, which offers the most extensive presentation in a 2200 m2 space, the tour will take place on the following dates:
February, 21st – July, 21st 2024
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels Curator : Francisca VandePitte
February, 4th – May, 11th 2025
Fundación MAPFRE in Madrid, Spain Curator : Estrella de Diego
June 12th – Octobrer, 12th 2025
Kunsthalle of Hambourg, Germany Curator : Annabelle Görgen-Lammers
End of 2025 – Beginning of 2026
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, United States of America Curator : Matthew Affron
