These 5 strange surrealist works are not what they seem

Thinking about the great form of surrealist art – from the works of Salvador Dali melting pocket watch and lobster phone To Meret Oppenheim Fluffy cup and saucer – It’s easy to ignore or discount these quirky creations as more silly than serious. But as the gallery celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Manifesto with an exhibition on Surrealism and its legacy, the movement’s poignant response to the war years that spawned it is being brought into close focus.

exhibition But do you live here? No Thank You: Surrealism and Anti-FascismThe purpose of this exhibition, which took place at Munich’s Lenbachhaus, is that “the Surrealist movement was formed at the same time as the European fascist movement, and that the political self-understanding of Surrealism was therefore in many ways highly influential. “to show that it is even constitutive.” ‘, co-curator Stephanie Weber told the BBC. Surrealism – except for dali – was anti-fascist and often had close ties to the French Communist Party. “All the artists who participated in our exhibition were personally affected by fascism” and “fighted back,” says Weber. “Many of them were persecuted, forced into exile, fought in the resistance… and many of them were caught up in wars or deported and killed.”

One of the featured artists is Victor Brauner, a Romanian Jewish painter. Romania faces rising anti-Semitism fueled by anti-Semitism iron guardHe started a new life in Paris in the 1930s, but was exiled again by the Nazi occupation in 1940. Nevertheless, his work was prolific and conveyed a “painterly sense of humor” seen in the exhibition’s signature image, “Totem of Wounded Subjectivity II” (1948). Yes, says Weber. This oil painting depicts a comical, cartoon-like being with arms instead of a nose and jaw, but whose sharp teeth and spines suggest a threat. They grasp forms that evoke both fruits. classic surrealist motifs – and suggests something visceral, visceral and brutal. In the center is the ubiquitous Surrealist “egg”, a symbol of the ambition for a new reality, driven by imagination and different from the sufferings of the past.

In Paris, where the Declaration of Brittany was written, visitors visit a blockbuster exhibition at the Center Pompidou. surrealism Now you can discover the original manuscript on display at the center of a labyrinthine journey through four decades of extraordinary art. This touring exhibition will begin in Brussels and continue to Madrid, Hamburg and Philadelphia, but is currently the most extensive exhibition, occupying 2,200 square meters of space. Highlights include René Magritte’s dizzying Personal Values ​​(1952); This is an absurd and funny rendition of a seemingly small room containing very large everyday items. But this comedy has its roots in suffering. Disillusioned with the rational thinking that led to the mass destruction of the world wars, artists like Magritte and his Dadaist predecessors embraced the illogical and drew inspiration from the dream world of the subconscious. I have created works that inspire.

something monstrous

Breton’s manifesto, while revolutionary in its vision, was less progressive in its inherent sexism. Although written for men and written entirely from the perspective of male experience, it does not anticipate or recognize the important role that women played in the formation of Surrealism. The Center Pompidou pays homage to female artists who are often undervalued or ignored as muses, including Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning, and photographer Dora Maar. The exhibition lineup includes Mahr’s famous Handshell (1934); This work is a striking image composed of two contrasting and discordant objects. An elegant hand teasing the sand with one finger and a seashell emerging from it, perhaps a re-imagining of Botticelli’s birth. of Venus. The work’s dramatic shadows and skies and interwar setting invite a variety of readings, from the rise of a new world from the ruins of the past to the impending visitation of monsters.

This prophetic quality of Surrealism, drawn from the unconscious, is picked up early in the exhibition, with the Edith Rimington Museum featuring a “fake collage” painting with a crystal ball-like centerpiece. are collecting. Thor Scott has researched this enigmatic British artist and is a curatorial assistant at the National Gallery of Scotland, which houses a collection of Rimington’s works and ephemera.

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She told the BBC that the museum, with its multiple roaming eyes, “questions the balance of power between object and viewer” and “speaks to the objectification of the female form”. The central feminine “artifact” is surrounded by floating sea creatures resembling disembodied female genitalia. Much of Rimington’s work draws on “visceral, violent images that would have spoken to people living in interwar and post-war Britain,” Scott said. “Her works often included depictions of mutilated or mutated bodies and rotting flesh, as well as references to the cyclical nature of life and death.”

This undercurrent of fear is traumatic surreality At the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, she researches the expression of fascism’s painful legacy by female surrealists. “Surrealism has its origins in and is rooted in the trauma of war,” says co-curator and professor of modern and contemporary art history at the University of Edinburgh, author of the 2022 book Traumatic Surrealism: Professor Patricia Almer, author of “With Women Artists.” Post-World War II Surrealism was the inspiration for the exhibition. “No male Surrealist artist has engaged more directly with the representation and critique of World War II than these women artists,” she told the BBC. For example, Claude Caen and his girlfriend Marcel Moore were imprisoned for publishing anti-Nazi propaganda, and Lee Miller said, “Actually going to war and taking pictures there. There are no Surrealists.”

However, the exhibition’s focus is on German-speaking artists. “Either they lived under fascism or their parents were involved in fascism in some way,” Almer said, adding that the extreme patriarchal values ​​that fascism embodied did not end with the war. I emphasize. “The whole ideology continued, but with a kind of repression, it became this weird undercurrent.”

One of the most interesting works in the exhibition is “Squirrel” by Meret Oppenheim, a German-born artist of Jewish descent who emigrated to Switzerland with his family. These fluffy-handled beer mug-like sculptures may seem humorous, but they are often “filled with violence,” Almer said. “The first impression is that it has this lovely soft, bushy tail that you want to stroke, and it’s holding a glass of beer that suggests sociable joy and hedonism.” But the strange juxtaposition Creates a shock effect. The historical impact of traumatic war experiences. According to Ulmer, the severed tail suggests “mutilation or amputation,” and its fur (a material also found in the exhibition’s works by Ursula, Renate Bertlmann, and Buddy Mink) They say it suggests something wild and frightening, and the way women are treated. animals, and Hitler’s disturbing obsession with wolves. Black humor is deliberate and a “very important strategy,” allowing women to “articulate realities that would otherwise be oppressed or excluded from public discourse.” Almer explains. The Bretons would dedicate anthology It was banned in 1940, but was immediately banned by the Vichy regime. Humor, he writes, is “a process that allows us to set aside reality when it becomes too painful.” If you find Surrealism interesting, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re off the mark.

surrealism will be held at the Center Pompidou in Paris until January 13, 2025.

But do you live here? No Thank You: Surrealism and Anti-Fascism will be held at the Lenbachhaus in Munich until March 2, 2025.

traumatic surreality It will remain at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds until 16 March 2025.

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