Surrealism

Unleash the unconscious: Provoking the establishment with primal instincts With Salvador Dali as its figurehead, the great ship of Surrealism traversed the turbulent seas of the early twentieth century with sails billowing with dreams and desires. Inspired by the psychoanalytical practice of Sigmund Freud, the Surrealists championed the unconscious as the domain of truth, uninhibited by the standards or expectations of society.

With techniques ranging from hypnotism to nocturnal walks to automatic writing, the likes of Andre Breton, Max Ernst, Brassai, and Meret Oppenheim produced paintings, drawings, texts, and films in which they sought to excavate their most intimate and primal instincts. The results abound with sexual fantasies, with mysterious, menacing creatures, and with the juxtaposition of seemingly contradictory objects or ideas.

About the Author

Cathrin Klingsöhr-Leroy (b. 1958) studied art history, archaeology and German literature in Regensburg, Bonn and Paris. She wrote her doctoral thesis on “The Artist Portrait in the French Grand Siècle”. Previously curator of the Fritz Winter Foundation at the Bayerische Staatsgemälde­samm­lungen in Munich, she is currently director of the Franz Marc Museum in Kochel am See. She has published works on Lyonel Feininger, Lovis Corinth, Franz Marc and the Blue Rider and in particular on Paul Klee.