"The surrealist adventure in truth constitutes a cosmology, but of a specific sort: that of a labyrinthine world, with an undefined structure, whose main principles are not very easy to ascertain; it is a garden akin to that of Through the Looking-glass, a chessboard constantly growing new squares, wherein paths continuously circle back to their departure point, like a sort of "curving space" phenomenon…
[...] The grandeur of surrealist painting lies in its passion for discovery, in its calling forth the Marvellous, in its exact, readable and mysterious content. The Labyrinth is built from the inside, but it can be indefinitely broadened, in keeping with our desire for freedom".
Marcel Jean, Histoire de la peinture surréaliste, 1959
This year, the Malingue gallery invites us to a visit in which pure visual pleasure is increased twofold thanks to a genuinely "physical" experience. In fact he will show an exceptional group of works by surrealist artists: some of the "historic" members of the movement, who started it and who took part, in Paris, in the very first meetings and think-tanks at the start of the twenties, are represented here (Dali, Ernst, Magritte, Masson, Miró, Tanguy) ; works by Bellmer, Brauner, Dominguez, Hérold, Lam, Matta and Paalen, welcomed later on into the group, from the mid-thirties onward, illustrate the variety and richness of the approach, whereas works by Delvaux, Picabia and Tanning, "marginal" artists, both geographically and due to the fact that they never officially belonged to the "surrealist group", complete this ensemble.
Furthermore, this overview of Surrealism is turned into an amazing spectacle for the visitor thanks to the exceptional importance of the formats on show. In fact, there is no afterthought as regards an historical demonstration here, no didactic wilfulness, but a single idea:
to impress, overwhelm, knock out.
Historically, the large format is "heroic": it illustrates the artist's ambition, it is the format of the "historical painting", the supreme art form, which was used to enhance rulers's prestige, by illustrating their battles, their victories, their glorious feats of arms. With the advent of impressionism, the "large format" was placed at the service of bucolic scenes in daily life (Manet, Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe, Renoir, Le Déjeuner des Canotiers, Seurat, Un dimanche à la Grande Jatte) or nature and atmospheric studies (Monet, Les Nymphéas). The viewer is witnessing a "spectacle", the setting up of an event, of a moment in history or in life.
With this group of Grands Surréalistes, there is no way for this viewer to remain "outside" the space in the canvases on display, to become a simple witness to a more or less anecdotic scene. Owing to these works's large scale, he finds himself immerged inside colored fields that seem to be only fragments of a broader whole (Matta, Miró, Tanguy), inside pure mind-blowing cosmic visions (Dominguez, Paalen), in recomposed fantastical worlds, peopled with strange or terrifying forms and figures (Brauner, Bellmer, Dali, Ernst, Lam, Magritte, Masson), or else inside enclosed spaces wherein time seems to be at a standstill (Delvaux, Tanning). Their very scale leads to a dialogue with the viewer's own body, who is thus invited to enter this imaginary world, or else find himself excluded from a scene whose mystery remains entire.
And so the large format is bound to "serve the prestige" of the artist's mind, for the viewer's greater pleasure.
The "gaming" principle, so dear to the Surrealists's heart, who were enthusiastic adepts of many playful activities with a creative aim, is also to be found in the exhibition: to start off, a treasure hunt, for the gallery owner who was seeking out the large formats, a pun in the title -"Great Surrealists" - (great artists, large scale works, great aesthetic quality), a game of observation for the visitor-amateur, to create a dialogue between the works themselves : from the ideal apparition in La Visite by Delvaux to the disturbing, half-petrified Gradiva by Masson, to the impenetrable mystery of La Chamber d'Amis by Tanning, the improbable monster in the Ciel de Pieuvre by Paalen to the heavy and frightening mass of Max Ernst's Horde , or the enigmatic spread of L'Ennui et la Tranquillité by Tanguy, which perhaps shelters the fantastical , not so "tranquil", figure, of Bellmer's Tour menthe poivrée à la louange des petites filles goulues, the hieratic figures of Brauner's Cérémonie, perhaps occurring at the heart of the forest in Lam's Harpe astrale ?
This quick overview of Surrealism (works between 1927 through 1961) is made up of works loans from prestigious collections, including the one from the Fondation Beyeler which very generously agreed to lend its magnificent Miró. Those major collectors of Surrealism kindly agreed to lend some of their masterpieces for a while.
A catalogue with a foreword by Jean-Michel Goutier, who was himself a member of the surrealist group at the end of the fifties, a poet and writer (he wrote the foreword of the sales catalogue of the André Breton Collection in Paris, 2003) accompanies the exhibition. Like in previous years, the catalogue is sold for the benefit of the association N.R.B.-Vaincre le Cancer: the funds thus collected enabled the setting up of a grant to pay a researcher for a year, and the Malingue gallery is happy to encourage efforts in research by renewing its initiative.
The whole point of the exhibition is above all to allow the discovery of a rarefied group of exceptional works, and these works are not supposed to be for sale.
Works by the following artists :
Bellmer, Brauner, Dali, Delvaux, Dominguez, Ernst, Hérold, Lam, Magritte, Masson, Matta, Miró, Paalen, Picabia, Tanguy, Tanning.