STANFORD, CA.- The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University opens The Conjured Life: The Legacy of Surrealism, an extraordinary exhibition set to chronicle the mesmerizing and unsettling nature of the Surrealist movement from historic master artists like René Magritte and Marcel Duchamp to today’s artistic superstars, including Cindy Sherman, Jimmie Durham, and David Lynch. Having originated at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the show’s cross-historical approach, for which the Cantor is renowned, enables viewers to witness Surrealism’s lasting impact on contemporary artistic practices.

“I’m thrilled to bring this exhibition to Stanford and to the Bay Area,” said Alison Gass, Chief Curator and Associate Director for Exhibitions and Collections at the Cantor. “In our presentation, the incredibly rich trove of works from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago combines with additions from both the Cantor’s permanent collection and rare materials form Stanford’s Special Collections libraries to offer a fresh investigation of Surrealism.”

The Conjured Life: The Legacy of Surrealism charts the travel of surrealist ideas and imagery as the movement evolved and expanded over the course of the 20th century. Surrealist works like Magritte’s Les merveilles de la nature (1953) and Paul Delvaux’s Penelope (1945) challenge traditional categories of experience, especially the distinction between reality and dream. Enrico Baj’s Le General Mechant et Decore (1961), shadow boxes by Joseph Cornell, and Willie Cole’s Heal and Rest (1992) reveal a surrealist interest in unconventional art-making techniques, including collage, assemblage, and photomontage. Works by Jean Arp and Wolfgang Paalen’s Taches Solaire (1938) demonstrate the Surrealists’ ingenious use of automatic processes.

The Cantor’s Halperin Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Jodi Roberts, commented, “This exhibition examines Surrealism’s international dissemination and stages intergenerational encounters between historical Surrealism and contemporary artists, highlighting the movement’s most generative concepts and techniques. Together, the works in A Conjured Life reveal how surrealist ideas evolved over time and remain a rich current within artistic practice.”