6 key works commented on by the curator of the exhibition at the Center Pompidou
We enter the “Surrealism” exhibition like Alice in Wonderland. Through a corridor which leads to an extraordinary labyrinth containing 350 writings, paintings, sculptures, objects, photographs and film extracts from the 1920s to 1960s: Manifest by André Breton, self-portrait as a chimera by Dorothea Tanning, lobster telephone by Dali, photos of Paris at night by Brassaï…
Sweeping away the caricature of a small circle of men disconnected from reality, the course draws on the latest work of researchers to give the movement a more open face, partly feminine, radiating on several continents and animated by a political conscience acute.
In the eyes of the curator, Didier Ottinger, the surrealists even carry a very current message: “Rejecting Western civilization based on technical rationality and the exploitation of the world which had resulted in the carnage of the Great War, they attempted to build another society exalting the harmony of life. »
Among alternative models, they turned to the first peoples, Breton bringing back a notebook from his trip to the Hopi, Native Americans of Arizona, in 1945. Our time would have every reason to be inspired by these dreamers of impossible who have “searched for the gold of time”.
Hand Shell, Dora Maar, 1934
A conch shell from which slender fingers with varnished nails escape. Far from being simple muses, women such as the photographer Dora Maar, the painter Leonor Fini or the visual artist Meret Oppenheim shone from the first International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936.
Very quickly, the creators stood out for their sensitivity, according to Didier Ottinger: “Claiming a key notion of movement, they are part of the living world. » As in this shot where Dora Maar offers a shortcut of the evolution of species, from molluscs to humanity.
“In the 1940s, Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo, members of the Mexico group, took up esoteric sciences and even represented themselves as witches transforming the world. »
Page from the Manifesto of Surrealism, André Breton, 1924
This is the cornerstone of the movement. Published on October 15, 1924, Manifesto of surrealism is an explosion.
“Unlike previous movements which had set themselves the objective of renewing art through form or subject, for example Cubism or Italian Futurism, it went well beyond by proposing a new philosophy of existence : not to write poetry, but to be a poet,” emphasizes Didier Ottinger.
Hence the constant reference to the clairvoyant Arthur Rimbaud and his leitmotif: “Change life. » Hence, also, the last sentence of the text which could seem enigmatic: “Existence is elsewhere. »