Surrealism - Menil
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The Menil Collection is home to one of the largest and most significant collections of Surrealism in the United States. A suite of permanent collection galleries is dedicated to this artistic movement, which began in France in the mid-1920s. The installation includes thematic rooms that highlight the Surrealists’ interest in bodily fragmentation and the double. Others explore Surrealism’s influence on postwar art movements, including
Art Informel
and Pop assemblage. Single-artist galleries dedicated to Max Ernst, René Magritte, and Joan Miró complete the display.
John and Dominique de Menil’s involvement with Surrealism began in the early 1930s when, shortly after their marriage, they commissioned Ernst to paint a portrait of Dominique. While charmed by the artist, they were taken aback by his strange creation—a radically spare composition of a face painted in three-quarter profile, situated against a navy-blue background and surrounded by floating shells—and relegated it to a back closet for many years. In 1946, they considered it again. In the intervening time, they had purchased their first modest works by major modernists, including Paul Cézanne and Pablo Picasso, and their tastes had evolved.
It was as if we were seeing the painting for the first time, our eyes open at last.
Dominique de Menil
The couple eventually became the most important United States-based champions of three artists closely associated with Surrealist movement: Victor Brauner, Max Ernst, and René Magritte. In a mark of their dedication, they initiated and funded the catalogues raisonnés of Ernst and Magritte and sponsored numerous exhibitions of their work. Today, Surrealism remains a core part of the Menil's holdings.
Shop
Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926–1938
65.00
Events
Member Noontime Talk: The Surrealism Galleries with Natalie Dupêcher
Friday, May 1
12–12:30 p.m.
member
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Related Artworks
Cardinal Harps (Arpas cardinales) (also titled: The Visitors [Les visiteurs]; Nénomita),
1948-1957
Wifredo Lam
The Nuptial March of the Sorcerer (La marche nuptiale du sorcier),
1947
Victor Brauner
Two Sisters (Deux soeurs),
1926
Max Ernst
Euclid,
1945
Max Ernst
Design in Nature,
1947
Max Ernst
The Good News (La bonne nouvelle),
1928
René Magritte
The Great Style (Le grand style),
1951
René Magritte
In the Airy Glades (Parmi les bosquets légers),
1965
René Magritte
Painting (The Magic of Color) (Peinture [La magie de la couleur]),
1930
Joan Miró
Spring (Printemps),
ca. 1937-1938\/1943
Francis Picabia
The Dead Bird (L'oiseau mort),
1926 or 1927
René Magritte
Surrealism and Painting (Le Surréalisme et la peinture),
1942
Max Ernst
Happy Feast Day (Bonne fête),
1892
Henri Rousseau
The Curvature of the Universe (La courbure de l'univers),
1950
René Magritte
Death of the Moon (Mort de la lune),
1932
Victor Brauner
Portrait of Dominique,
ca. 1932
Max Ernst
Marlene,
1940-1941
Max Ernst
In Praise of Freedom (Éloge de la liberté),
ca. 1926
Max Ernst
The Law of Gravity (La loi de la pesanteur),
1928
René Magritte
Surrender (L'abandon),
1929
René Magritte
Return of The Beautiful Gardener (Retour de la belle jardinière),
1967
Max Ernst
It's All Over,
1946-1947
Wols
Oradour-sur-Glane,
1945
Jean Fautrier
Manhattan,
1947
Wols
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