Surreal Things at The Art Gallery of Ontario
PARK WEST GALLERY maintains one of the most respected and thoroughly documented collections of Salvador Dali artwork in the world. Learn all about the artwork of the Spanish master at the Park West – Salvador Dali website.
TORONTO, CANADA – The Art Gallery of Ontario has announced an extension for its successful exhibition, Surreal Things. A Canadian exclusive, Surreal Things 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 DalÃ, Giorgio de Chirico, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Meret Oppenheim, Man Ray, and Elsa Schiaparelli.
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, jewelry, ceramics, textiles, furniture, fashion, film, and photography.
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 is currently on view until September 13, 2009.
Source: Art Gallery of Toronto
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For more information about Surreal Things, visit www.ago.net
