René Magritte, The Lovers, 1928. Oil on canvas. (©2001 Charly Herscovici, Brussels / ARS, NY)

Surrealism arose out of Giorgio de Chirico’s "Pittura Metafisica" in the teens, as well as Dada a bit later, elaborating upon Freud’s theories about dreams, the unconscious, and sexuality in art, drama, and literature. It all seems to be old hat to us today, but at the time, it was unquestionably avant-garde, controversial, and groundbreaking.

It was literally fantastic to see the room full of de Chirico’s 1912-13 works now when the Museum of Modern Art, about to undergo renovation, cannot display them. A few early, small paintings and the masterpieces Uncertainty of the Poet, Ariadne, and Enigma of a Day are inhabited by towers, arcades, small figures, and inexplicable brick walls,

Dorothea Tanning, Birthday, 1942. Oil on canvas. (©2001 ARS, NY / ADAGP, Paris

which close off vast space. Beyond these walls trains pass, belching steam, and sailboats move in the wind. Things that shouldn’t logically move do move, always contrasting with motionless, frozen rigidity and empty space. One quickly understands why Andre Breton, the "Pope of Surrealism," got off a bus when he passed de Chirico’s painting The Child’s Brain hanging in a gallery window, and ran back to look at it. He later bought it and the Enigma of a Day, enabling many Surrealist artists to see these hanging in Breton’s house.

Dada is well served by the rooms full of Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Francis Picabia, Max Ernst, and Jean Arp. These illustrate the conceptual, mechanized aspects of an alienated society before and during the First World War. Desire transmuted into the likes of carburetors, spark plugs, coffee grinders, motors, and molds clearly set precedents for Surrealist works to follow. And such work did not remain confined to one medium, such as painting, but spread out to sculpture, constructions, mixed media, and even completely different art forms, such as film, theater, and dance. Dehumanization and mechanization dominated; think of the puppets in Stravinsky’s 1910-11 ballet Petrushka; the sirens, typewriter, guns, and car horns in Satie’s 1917 ballet Parade; Man Ray’s 1919 watercolor Fatigue of the Marionettes; Leger’s 1924 Ballet Mechanique, and so many others, including Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times in 1936.

Salvador Dalí, Lobster Telephone, 1936. Plastic, painted plaster and mixed media. (©2001 Salvador Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation/ARS, NY)

The show clearly illustrates Surrealism’s two major aspects. Plainly visible is the contrast between the controlled, representational, super-real paintings of de Chirico, Salvador Dali, and René Magritte and the more abstract, "automatic" ones of Andre Masson, Joan Miro, Yves Tanguy, and Matta, for example.

The show is organized more or less chronologically and by artist. Thankfully, it includes lesser-known works by major artists, as well as art by overlooked masters and "mistresses" (pun intended). Women artists, many of them partners of male Surrealists, faced incredible conflicts. Their own work was inevitably subordinated to that of their men, who, obsessed by the notion of "l’amour fou," regarded females as muses, "child-women," and objects of extreme passion who served primarily as a stimulus for their creative outpourings. In the last two decades, there have been a few shows of women Surrealists, and some important research done, but I think this is the first time they are displayed in a major museum alongside their male counterparts.

Salvador Dalí, The Accommodations of Desire, 1929. Oil and collage on cardboard. (©2001 Salvador Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation/ARS, NY)

Both Leonora Carrington (b. 1917) and Dorothea Tanning (b. 1912) are still living and working; ironically, both were married to Max Ernst (at different times). In her marvelous Self-Portrait at the Inn of the Dawn Horse of 1936-37, Carrington depicts her 20-year-old self as a magical woman, dressed in trousers and shoes echoed by the legs of the chair. Her mane of hair (a common theme among women artists of the time) seems electric, and she is surrounded by a lactating hyena, a symbol of male/female ambiguity, female dominance, and ferocity, as well as a hobby-horse and a "real" horse bounding outside the window. Here animals mediate between dream and reality, representing sexual fantasies for women in the same way women provided the stimulus for men. Tanning’s Birthday of 1942, also a self-portrait, shows the artist in a bare room, multiple doors behind her. Clad in an elaborate fairytale outfit, nude above the waist, she is both subject and object, simple yet complex under all the layers of meaning.

We also get to see some of the powerful and painful autobiographical paintings of Frida Kahlo. Though she did not regard herself as a Surrealist, Breton did, and she has become better known today than her notorious husband, Diego Rivera.

Leonora Carrington, Self-Portrait at the Inn of the Dawn Horse, 1936-37. Oil and canvas. (©2002 Leonora Carrington/ARS, NY / Photo: Christopher Burke, NY)

Indeed, Kahlo has become somewhat of a cult figure in recent times, her face staring out from bus stop and subway posters, the subject of drama, film, and dance compositions. The self-portraiture of these women has inspired dozens of subsequent artists, both female and male. Lesser known women, such as the pioneering photographer Lee Miller, better known as the model for Man Ray’s photos, and Dora Maar, famous for her relationship with Picasso, also appear with strong works in the show.

I would be remiss not to mention the presence of art by Giacometti, Picasso, Ernst, Bellmer, and Joseph Cornell. But works by these artists are all more readily accessible and most are exhibited regularly.

The show ends with fascinating documents and drawings by both major and minor artists of the time and works from the last show of the Surrealists in 1959, as well as a few paintings by Abstract Expressionists, whose work grew directly out of Surrealism. There is an exciting series of lectures, films, and poetry readings accompanying the exhibition. Ask for the list at the museum.