Surrealist trends in America
André Masson, gouache 27,9x16,7cm, March 1941, Marseille, Novalis, Mage d'Amour, coll. Musée Cantini, Marseille © ADAGP, Paris, 2020, Photo Ville de Marseille, distribution RMN Paris, Jean Bernard
Contrary to the notion that Parisian surrealists exiled in America brought surrealism to American art, surrealist trends already existed in New York from the 1930s to the 1960s. Both on the East as well as the West coast, surrealist works by the likes of Salvador Dali contributed to inspire American surrealist artists such as Joseph Cornell, or in New York ‘social’ surrealists such as O. Louis Gugliemi and Californian ‘post-surrealists’ like Helen Lundeberg.
Exiled French surrealists
Arshile Gorky, Study for the Bethrotal, 1946-1947, graphite and wax crayon on paper, 61,5x48,6cm, Spencertown, Jack Shear © Elsworth Kelly Studio
The show opens with the presence in Marseille (1940-1941) of a group of surrealists around André Breton, like Victor Brauner, Max Ernst, Jacqueline Lamba, André Masson or Wilfredo Lam before leaving for New York. The group participated in collective actions while waiting for visas.
Once in the States, the exiled group continued their creative actions, inspiring young local artists to produce a transatlantic form of surrealism with two variants: one figurative and the other abstract. The figurative current included Dali, Cornell, Man Ray, Yves Tanguy, Kay Sage and the film maker Maya Deren. The abstract variant included Arshile Gorky dubbed by Breton as a true surrealist. Gorky is the subject of a special focus in the exhibition because he developed abstract expressionism followed by Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, David Smith or Clyfford Still, and on the fringe, Richard Pousette-Dart and Louise Bourgeois.
Once in the States, the exiled group continued their creative actions, inspiring young local artists to produce a transatlantic form of surrealism with two variants: one figurative and the other abstract. The figurative current included Dali, Cornell, Man Ray, Yves Tanguy, Kay Sage and the film maker Maya Deren. The abstract variant included Arshile Gorky dubbed by Breton as a true surrealist. Gorky is the subject of a special focus in the exhibition because he developed abstract expressionism followed by Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, David Smith or Clyfford Still, and on the fringe, Richard Pousette-Dart and Louise Bourgeois.
Continuing influence of surrealism in the United States
Peter Saul, San Francisco no.2, 1966, fluorescent oil on canvas, 120,5x161,5 cm, coll. MAC, Marseille © ADAGP Paris 2020, Photo Ville de Marseille, distribution RMN Paris, Benjamin Soligny / Raphaël Chipault
The influence of surrealism continued well into the late 1960s despite being disparaged by Clement Greenberg. Californian artists Wallace Berman, Bruce Connor, Jess or the film-maker Kenneth Anger used metaphors and narration, often with sexual connotation. Gene Swenson, critic and curator, pointed out that on the East coast a novel relationship between object and emotion was at the core of the oeuvre of artists Jasper Johns, Ray Johnson, Robert Morris or Claes Oldenburg.
At the end of the 1960s, surrealism proper regained in popularity as evident in Californian psychedelic rock posters. Artists such as Alberto Giacometti or Tanguy blurred the frontiers between abstraction and figuration, endowing their work with a strong erotic potential, often displaying disagreeable flabby forms. Others returned to a stricter form of surrealism like Paul Thek with his meat reliquairies or Nancy Grossmann’s sadomasochist heads which inspired among others Richard Serra’s earliest creations.
At the end of the 1960s, surrealism proper regained in popularity as evident in Californian psychedelic rock posters. Artists such as Alberto Giacometti or Tanguy blurred the frontiers between abstraction and figuration, endowing their work with a strong erotic potential, often displaying disagreeable flabby forms. Others returned to a stricter form of surrealism like Paul Thek with his meat reliquairies or Nancy Grossmann’s sadomasochist heads which inspired among others Richard Serra’s earliest creations.
Basic Information about the museum Centre de la Vieille Charité awaiting reopening of museums
Surrealism in American Art shown in Marseille.
Centre de la Vieille Charité,
2, rue de la Charité, 13002 Marseille
Open Tuesday until Sunday from 9h until 18h
Métro: Line 2 (red) direction Bougainville until Joliette
Tickets 12€
www.musées.marseille.fr for information and reservations
2, rue de la Charité, 13002 Marseille
Open Tuesday until Sunday from 9h until 18h
Métro: Line 2 (red) direction Bougainville until Joliette
Tickets 12€
www.musées.marseille.fr for information and reservations