At One Hundred, Surrealism Is Alive and Well in Austin and Beyond

Surrealism was born in October of 1924 when French poet and critic André Breton published the Surrealist Manifesto, forever staking claim to the term coined almost a decade prior by Guillaume Apollinaire in the program notes for a Ballets Russes production. Breton defined the style as “pure psychic automatism,” and though the movement has in popular culture been long associated with Salvador Dali and his melting clocks, it’s so much more than that and very much alive today.

It’s strange to think that surrealism is celebrating its 100-year anniversary this year, considering it’s still relevant in fashion, art and design. Just look at Viktor & Rolf’s dreamy runway shows or the designs of Walter Van Beirendonck, not to mention the photography of Carlijn Jacobs. The “New Surrealism” is something that’s often talked about—but it wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Breton and his manifesto.

The Blanton Museum of Art’s “Long Live Surrealism! 1924-Today” is both a retrospective and a testament to the movement’s lasting legacy, with seventy works by surrealist artists like Man Ray (who used his camera to dream out loud, so to speak), Rene Magritte (who painted dreams that he had) and Max Ernst (who was really a living nightmare and dumped Peggy Guggenheim for a woman half his age).

By definition, surrealism sounds dramatic, but it really is quite fun. The exhibition features work by Hans Bellmer, who brought an eerie edge to his work. The German artist, born in 1902, created life-sized female dolls in 1934 in Berlin called “artificial girls” and used them as props in his Surrealist photography.

Leonora Carrington, <em>Baño de pájaros (Birdbath)</em>, 1978; Serigraph in 10 colors , 67/150, Sight: 28 x 22 in. (71.1 x 55.9 cm); Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Gift of Vera Blinn Reber.">

There are also works by Leonora Carrington, the British-born Mexican painter known for providing a female perspective on Surrealism. Her paintings, which are witchy and ethereal, call to mind the works of Ernst and Frida Kahlo. She said in 2012 that: “I don’t see any point in discussing visual art for me. Other people can make their ideas. Contemporary art has gotten so abstract that it’s practically nothing.”

The exhibit also showcases local Austin artists working today, like Connor O’Leary, a 32-year-old artist whose paintings have been called “quiet chaos,” and Emily Mae Smith, who fuses together symbolism from Greek Mythology into her surrealistic paintings, some of which have emoji-like mushroom figures.

There are also works by Kenji Nakahashi, who loved pizza. The Japanese artist, who was born in 1947 and died in 2017, used pizza as a metaphor for contemporary living, using pizza slices laid side by side with a folding fan. In other words, his photos of everyday objects brought a sense of humor that’s often lacking in photography today.

Surrealism, as we know it, all started in post-World War I Paris as a literary and philosophical—and later artistic—movement. It was radical, it was revolutionary. It was partly inspired by Dadaism, spearheaded by artists like Marcel Duchamp, Jean Arp and Francis Picabia.

It was a scene in Paris; its adherents were the cool kids of their time. Think back to surrealist events back in the 1920s and 1930s, which was a mecca for creativity. In the Left Bank of Paris, some of the greatest modern artists and thinkers of our time were perusing the streets, like Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Peggy Guggenheim and Pablo Picasso. The artists gathered under Breton’s leadership and wrote poetry, made art and held séance-like events to reach dream-like states.

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It didn’t take long for surrealism to catch on like wildfire. It was inspired by Sigmund Freud’s writings, putting an emphasis on dreams and the subconscious as a starting point for expression. It bridged reality with the dream world in ways that were never expressed before in art.

“Long Live Surrealism!” features the Blanton’s collection of works on paper, many of which are on view for the first time. Since 2020, the museum has added twenty-one new works to its collection. One lithograph on view is Spanish artist Joan Miró’s Je travaille comme un jardinier (I work like a gardener), from 1964, and there’s also Federico Castellón’s Untitled dry brush and ink on paper piece from 1935.

The exhibition is broken down into sections, like ‘Dream Imagery,’ which looks at how surrealism represents repressed thoughts and features works by Gertrude Abercrombie and Salvador Dalí. Other sections include ‘Abstraction: Automatism and Biomorphism,’ showing how the surrealists created art with the subconscious before the conscious mind, and ‘The Body: Metamorphosis and Desire,’ which looks at how the human form plays a role in surrealist art.

It’s a far-ranging exhibition covering one of the most beloved—and approachable—art movements of modern times. What the exhibition doesn’t really touch on is how Surrealism has made its way into pop culture—be it the music videos of Katy Perry, fashion design by Iris Van Herpen or furniture design by The Future Perfect. Surrealism is alive and well in 2024 outside of the art world.

There are also so many contemporary artists who could be considered surrealist. Yayoi Kusama, perhaps? We’re living in surreal times, after all. Breton wrote in the second Manifesto of Surrealism in 1929 that “the simplest Surrealist act consists of dashing down into the street, pistol in hand, and firing blindly, as fast as you can pull the trigger, into the crowd.” The movement and its modern birthright still have that bizarre, stark and unearthly presence in a world so caught up in the conscious mind.

“Long Live Surrealism! 1924-Today” is on view at the Blanton Museum of Art through January 12, 2025.