Surrealist art, dismissed or trivialized by some as frivolous and stupid, was actually largely born out of the brutal trauma of living under fascism, as these five striking works reveal.

A century has passed since André Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism advocated “a pure mode of expression… dictated by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason.” The intended vehicle for this unbridled imagination was writing; art was thought to be too spontaneous. But just a year later, on November 13, 1925, the first exhibition of Surrealist art opened in Paris, revealing a world of strange, dream-filled works by artists such as Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso. Adam Ray and Max Ernst.

Considering the fantastic forms of surrealist art – from the works of Salvador Dalí melting pocket watches And lobster phone To Méret Oppenheim furry cup and saucer – it is easy to trivialize or dismiss these strange works as silly rather than serious. But as galleries celebrate the centenary of the Manifesto with exhibitions on Surrealism and its legacy, the movement’s poignant response to the war years that gave birth to it comes to the fore.

Exhibition But do you live here? No thanks: Surrealism and Anti-fascismThe exhibition, held at the Lenbachhaus in Munich, “aims to show that the Surrealism movement was formed at the same time as the fascist movements in Europe and was therefore highly influential and in many respects even founding in Surrealism’s political self-understanding.” “, curator Stephanie Weber tells the BBC. Surrealists – except Dalí – they were anti-fascist and often had close ties to the French Communist Party. “All the artists in our exhibition were personally affected by fascism” and “fought against it,” says Weber. “Many were persecuted, forced into exile, fought in the Resistance… and many either died in battle or were deported and killed.”

One of the prominent artists is the Romanian Jewish painter Victor Brauner. We face increasing antisemitism fueled by Romania Iron GuardHe built a new life in Paris in the 1930s, but was displaced again by the Nazi occupation in 1940. His works were nevertheless prolific and, according to Weber, reflect the “pictorial sense of humor” seen in the exhibition’s flagship, Totem of Wounded Subjectivity II (1948). The oil painting features funny, cartoonish beings with arms instead of noses or chins, but whose sharp teeth and spikes pose a threat. They capture forms reminiscent of both fruits. classic surrealist motif – and the viscera suggest something visceral and brutal. In the middle is the ubiquitous surrealist “egg”, a symbol of the desire for a new reality, driven by imagination and different from the sufferings of the past.

In Paris, where Breton’s Manifesto was written, the Pompidou Center’s blockbuster exhibition was presented to visitors Surrealism Now you can discover the original manuscript on display at the heart of a labyrinthine journey through 40 years of mind-blowing art. The traveling exhibition started in Brussels and will continue to Madrid, Hamburg and Philadelphia, but it is currently the most comprehensive and covers a huge area. Highlights include René Magritte’s dazzling Personal Values ​​(1952); This work is an absurd and playful interpretation of a seemingly small room containing very large-sized everyday objects. But the source of this comedy is pain. Disillusioned with the rational thought that led to the mass destruction of world war, artists such as Magritte and his Dadaist predecessors embraced the irrational, creating alarming works inspired by the subconscious world of dreams.

Although revolutionary in its vision, Breton’s manifesto was inherently less progressive in terms of sexism. Addressed to men and written entirely from the perspective of male experience, this book fails to anticipate or acknowledge the vital role women would play in shaping surrealism. The Pompidou Center pays tribute to women artists such as: Leonora CarringtonDorothea Tanning and photographer Dora Maarshe is often underestimated or overlooked as a muse. The lineup of the exhibition includes Maar’s famous work titled Hand Shell (1934); a striking image composed of two contrasting and incongruous objects: a graceful one-fingered hand teasingly poking the sand and the shell from which it emerges – perhaps a re-imagining of Botticelli’s The Birth. of Venus. The work’s dramatic shadows, sky and interwar context invite a variety of readings, from the birth of a new world from the ruins of the past to the imminent visit of something monstrous.

This prophetic quality of surrealism, coming from the unconscious, is discussed early in the exhibition, highlighted by Edith Rimmington’s Museum, a “faux-collage” painting with a crystal ball-like centerpiece. Tor Scott researches this enigmatic British artist and serves as assistant curator at the National Galleries of Scotland, which houses a collection of Rimmington’s works and ephemera.

The museum, with its many roving eyes, “questions the balance of power between object and viewer” and “speaks to the objectification of the female form,” she told the BBC. The central feminine “artifact” is surrounded by floating sea creatures that resemble disembodied female reproductive organs. Scott says much of Rimmington’s output draws on “visceral and violent imagery that would appeal to those living in interwar Britain and beyond”. “His work often featured depictions of dismembered or mutated bodies and rotting flesh, as well as references to the cyclical nature of life and death.”

This undercurrent of fear continues Traumatic Surreal At the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, she researches female surrealists’ expressions of the painful legacy of fascism. “Surrealism stems from and depends on the trauma of war,” says co-curator Professor Patricia Allmer, professor of modern and contemporary art history at the University of Edinburgh and author of the 2022 book The Traumatic Surreal: Germanophone Women Artists and the Traumatic Surreal. Post-World War II surrealism inspired the exhibition. “No male surrealist artist attempted to represent and critique the Second World War as directly as these female artists,” she told the BBC. For example, Claude Cahun and his girlfriend Marcel Moore were imprisoned for publishing anti-Nazi propaganda and Lee Miller “He actually goes to war and takes photographs there. There is not a single male Surrealist who does this”.

However, the focus of the exhibition is on German-speaking artists. “They either lived under fascism, or their parents were involved in it one way or another,” said Allmer, emphasizing that the extreme patriarchal values ​​embodied in fascism did not end with the war. “The whole ideology continued, but it was kind of suppressed and became a weird undercurrent.”

One of the most interesting works of the exhibition is Squirrel by Méret Oppenheim, a German-born artist of Jewish origin who fled to Switzerland with his family. Sculptures like this fluffy-stemmed beer mug may look funny, but they’re often “violent,” Allmer says. “On first impression, you have a nice, soft, bushy tail that invites you to pet it, and your pint glass evokes social pleasure and hedonism.” “historical shocks of war experience that lead to trauma”. Allmer says the severed tail is “to cut off or amputate” and her fur, also seen in works by Ursula, Renate Bertlmann and Bady Minck in the exhibition, evokes something wild and frightening, the treatment of women, animals and Hitler’s disturbing obsession with wolves. Allmer explains that dark humor is intentional and “a really important strategy,” allowing women to “express truths that are otherwise suppressed or excluded from public discourse.” Breton would have devoted an anthology It was quickly banned by the Vichy regime in 1940. Humor, he writes, “is a process that allows one to push reality aside when it becomes too sad.” If we find surrealism funny, we need not miss the point.

Surrealism At the Pompidou Center in Paris until January 13, 2025.