Focus Exhibition: Dreams of the Surreal

René Magritte
(Belgian, 1898–1967)
Les Pommes Masquées (Masked Apples)
1967–68
Colored etching and aquatint
(69.100)

Surrealism was an international artistic and literary movement that was founded in Paris in 1924. Evolving out of Dada, the new movement embraced the same revolutionary politics, distaste for cultural conventions and use of chance in the creation of art. Surrealism sought to fuse reality and the unconscious to arrive at a "super-reality," or "surréalisme."

Artistic creativity was freed from the constraints of reason, morals and aesthetic concerns. In exploring this, the Surrealists were deeply influenced by the ideas of Freud and his study of the power of the subconscious and the importance of dreams in exploring the innermost realms of the mind.

The nine works selected for this focus exhibition come from the collections of the Museum of Art and Archaeology. Each work of art subverts the normal in a unique way. They evidence a wide variety of approaches toward the representation of dreams and unconscious thoughts.

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