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"I try to create fantastic things,
magical things, things like in a dream. The world needs more
fantasy. Our civilization is too mechanical."
Salvador Dali, 1940
(Toronto) This summer, reality will be
suspended at the Art Gallery of Ontario as it welcomes
Surreal Things, an innovative exhibition organized by
London's Victoria and Albert Museum. A Canadian exclusive which
runs May 9 to August 30, 2009, this is the first exhibition to
examine the influence of Surrealism on the world of design as
expressed in, theatre, interiors, fashion, film, architecture,
and advertising. The show explores how some of the greatest
artists of the 20th century engaged with Surrealism to create
extraordinary objects.
Surreal Things showcases more than 200 items drawn from
public and private collections worldwide, many of which have
rarely been exhibited before. The exhibition highlights the work
of Surrealist artists and designers who were productive after
1930, including Salvador Dalí, Giorgio de Chirico, Marcel
Duchamp, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Meret Oppenheim,
Man Ray, and Elsa Schiaparelli.
As an enhancement to this exhibition, key loans from collections
in the United States and Canada have been added for its North
American tour to Toronto, Dallas and Minneapolis. Of great
significance is a major loan of works by Salvador Dalí, Giorgio
de Chirico, Joan Miró, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Joseph Cornell
and Alexander Calder from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
in Hartford, Connecticut. As well, as a compliment to this
collection, fourteen surrealist works from the AGO will be on
view including such renowned artists as Magritte, Miró and
Tanguy.
The exhibition is divided into five thematic sections: Protest:
The Ballet; Surrealism and the Object; The Illusory Interior;
Nature Made Strange; and Displaying the Body. The show
incorporates a variety of medium such as painting, sculpture,
architecture, works on paper, jewellery, ceramics, textiles,
furniture, fashion, film, and photography.
"Surrealist works form the foundation of the AGO's collection of
modern European art," says Michael Parke-Taylor, AGO's acting
curator of European art . "This exhibition breaks new ground by
taking a unique look at a period in history where a creative
cross-fertilization occurred between Surrealist artists and
designers."
Surrealism developed in the early 1920s in reaction to the Dada
art movement. Inspired by the psychoanalytical theories of
Sigmund Freud and led by French poet André Breton, the
Surrealists were inspired by fantasy, the irrational and the
marvelous to create objects that might be the manifestation of
dreams, secret fantasies and fears. The Surrealists employed
such experimental techniques as spontaneous sketches,
automatism, and collage and assemblage which involved the chance
juxtaposition of objects to create symbolic meaning. During the
1930s, Surrealism evolved from an avant-garde art movement and
filtered into the worlds of design, fashion, advertising,
architecture, film and theatre.
Surreal Things examines the movement's historical
framework, identifies its major exhibitions and events, and
highlights the later work of Surrealist artists and designers
whose careers extended beyond the movement. The show brings
together some of the most extraordinary objects created during
the period of Surrealism, including Elsa Schiaparelli's Tear
evening dress (1938); with fabric designed by Salvador Dalí;
René Magritte's The Tempest (1931); and Meret Oppenheim's
Table with Bird's Legs (1939).
Surreal Things is curated by Ghislaine Wood, Victoria
and Albert Museum, London and was first shown in London,
Rotterdam and Bilbao. The tour will continue after the Art
Gallery of Ontario to the Dallas Museum of Art and the
Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Also, in May 2009, the AGO presents
two exhibitions that explore European modernism during the 1920s
and 1930s. Angelika Hoerle and Progressive Cologne
examine issues around gender and politics in Weimar Germany
during the same period.
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