Surrealism Beyond Europe: 5 Essential Artists Getting Recognition at New Met Show

Eugenio Granell, El vuelo nocturno del pájaro Pí (The Pi Bird’s Night Flight), 1952.PHOTO MARGEN FOTOGRAFÍA/©2021 ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK/VEGAP, MADRID/COLECCIÓN FUNDACIÓN EUGENIO GRANELL, SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

For years, the common misconception about Surrealism was that it was mainly a European movement, with René Magritte, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, and others as its leaders. Gradually, that notion is changing. Feminists have added to the Surrealist canon female artists like Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning, and Méret Oppenheim, and acclaimed surveys outside the U.S. have brought increased attention to figures like Wifredo Lam, Hervé Télémaque, and Remedios Varo. As a new kind of surrealism takes root among today’s younger female painters, a new understanding of the movement is also blooming.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s current exhibition “Surrealism Beyond Borders” reflects this momentum. Curated by Stephanie D’Alessandro and Matthew Gale with Lauren Rosati, Sean O’Hanlan, and Carine Harmand, the show, which heads to Tate Modern in London after its run in New York, aims to prove that Surrealism was hardly confined to Europe. If anything, this survey suggests that, once Surrealism got its start in Paris in the ’20s, the movement’s influence could not be contained.

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