Celebrating the centenary of the “Surrealist Manifesto” with groundbreaking artworks
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This year is the 100th anniversary of the “Surrealist Manifesto”—or rather, the two publications written by the leaders of rival surrealist groups, Yvan Goll and André Breton (whose manifesto is usually the one referred to). This cultural movement rebelled against the rationalism that some artists felt had led to the horrors of World War I in favor of the expression of dreams, the unconscious and the bizarre, such as Salvador Dalí’s melting clocks or René Magritte’s floating apples.
The Centre Pompidou in Paris has co-organized this traveling show—which opened at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in February—to explore surrealism’s many themes. It includes works by artists including Dalí, Max Ernst, Man Ray and Leonora Carrington.
“The surrealist revolution was a big bang in the history of art,” says Thomas Bompard, Sotheby’s co-head of department, modern and contemporary art, Paris. “It went on to influence figures such as Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha and countless other artists. The movement sought beauty, poetry and mystery, and pursued these themes into uncharted waters of creativity, artistry and technique. This exhibition presents works by women surrealists who are at last receiving the scholarly and market interest they have long deserved.”
Image: Max Ernst, “L'ange du foyer (Le Triomphe du surréalisme),” 1937. Credit: Vincent Everarts Photographie; Adagp, Paris, 2024
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