Explore Surrealism at the Blanton with Works by Salvador Dalí, René Magritte and Yayoi Kusama

One hundred years ago, the reality-bending art movement of Surrealism was born. The new Blanton Museum of Art exhibit, “Long Live Surrealism! 1924–Today,” invites visitors to open their minds and revisit the dreamy and sometimes disturbing artwork of Surrealist masters including Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, and Man Ray, as well as living local artists who keep the tradition alive in thrilling new ways.

The illusory exhibit, which opened on September 7 and runs through January 12, is a kaleidoscopic feast for the eyes. Upon entering the gallery, visitors are greeted by bubble gum-pink walls, a nod to Paris’ 1959 Surrealism exhibition where the walls were covered in pink satin and equipped with air pumps, creating the effect of walking alongside a breathing lung, reminiscent of something out of a Ms. Frizzle adventure. 

Surrealism’s revolutionary roots and mind-bending works take center stage

In the center of the exhibit, visible from every room, sits Hannah Levy’s 2020 untitled sculpture, a chair-like steel structure with legs ending in sharp, hawklike talons, “wearing” a silicone dress with bumps that resemble chicken skin — a catwalk nightmare. Nearby, you can admire one of Yayoi Kusama’s early paintings, an amoeba-like visage titled “The Woman” made in 1953; an untitled 1935 drawing by Federico Castellón depicting an elephant-man hybrid that seems to be morphing before your very eyes; and a 1967 Dalí etching, “Les Tranchées (The Trenches),” featuring one of his famous melting clocks.

Many Americans may not be aware that Surrealism began in Paris not as an art movement, but a literary one. The French poet André Breton published his “Manifesto of Surrealism” in October 1924, defining the art form as “dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation.”

“It was an overtly revolutionary movement from the start, pushing back against a lot of injustice beginning with imperialism, and pointing out the injustices inherent in France’s Empire,” says Claire Howard, the Blanton’s recently-departed Associate Curator of Collections and Exhibitions. “Beyond that, it’s anti-nationalism, anti-authoritarianism, this emphasis on liberation, creatively and personally and politically.”

Discover five surreal themes at Blanton’s new exhibit

Howard organized the show by five themes (Surrealists would surely look down upon a linear chronological structure), grouping dream imagery, abstraction, collage, representations of the body, and The Marvelous in the Everyday, in which photographs reveal uncanny moments captured in the world.  

“I personally really love The Body: Metamorphosis and Desire,” Howard says. The instability of things in dreams gives us this kind of surrealism, like bodies that are always in states of change, turning from one thing into another. I think a lot about the work of someone like Hannah Levy or Louise Bourgeois and their works in the show; when female artists are working with this kind of element of metamorphosis, I think there’s sort of a strategy, whether it’s conscious or not, of resistance to objectification.” 

Local contemporary artists also grace the exhibit, including Emily Mae Smith, a UT alumnus, and Connor O’Leary, a painter who used to bartend at Yellow Jacket Social Club. In O’Leary’s studio sits a silicone mold of the disembodied ear that appears in his sunflower yellow 2022 painting, “You F*cker.” The ear is in repose next to some crab legs and small, lone flames that seem to have appeared from nowhere (or perhaps conjured), all sitting in front of a glinting mirror that seems to reflect the blue sky beyond — or nothing at all.

Celebrate Surrealism with expert talks and events at the Blanton this fall

Visitors are invited to join a guided tour of the exhibition on select Tuesdays (Blanton’s weekly free admission day) and Sundays, included with admission and also available in Spanish. For those eager to connect with fellow thinkers, dreamers, and Surrealism devotees, the Blanton All Day “Keepin’ it Surreal” celebration on Sept. 15 features an “Art with an Expert” talk with Surrealism scholar Sandra Zalman. Or, party with live music and artmaking at the B Scene: Surrealism Soirée on October 25 (tickets go on sale later this month), where Connor O’Leary will discuss his art. Costumes are encouraged.

“People think of Surrealism as like, oh, it’s just about dreams. It’s just about things that are kind of weird,” says Howard. “But I think (the Surrealists are) trying to say, if there is this higher reality that we can access in dreams, and that’s where these things that society mandates we repress, these hidden desires, show up, then I guess the question is: once you know that there is another reality, what becomes possible?”

“Long Live Surrealism! 1924–Today” is on view at the Blanton Museum of Art through January 12. The museum is located at 200 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Admission is $8 to $15, and free on Tuesdays.

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