Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw
26.06.2026–10.01.2027
Max Ernst, Toyen, Leonora Carrington, Pablo Picasso, Remedios Varo, Kurt Seligmann, André Masson, Roberto Matta, Franciszka and Stefan Themerson
Since its emergence in the 1920s, Surrealism has confronted a number of political movements that contradicted the ideals of equality and freedom. Surrealists would condemn Europe’s colonial project, organize themselves against fascists, fight in the Spanish Civil War, join the resistance during World War II—to be denounced as “degenerate” by the Nazis, face internment or persecution, flee Europe to escape extermination or, as was the case of many, die on the battlefields or in camps. Their resistance was art itself. Through poetry, painting, photography, collage, and exhibition-making they strived to expose flaws in the supposedly rational language of the supposedly rational civilization of the West.
As fascism gained ground in Europe, Nazification of Germany progressed, World War II and colonial wars broke out—Surrealists wouldn’t budge; the movement’s protagonists remained radical in their ideological and political choices. At the same time, these upheavals resulted in extraordinary encounters and a truly global solidarity: linking Prague with Coyoacán, Mexico; Cairo, with the Spanish Republic; Marseille, with Martinique’s Fort-de-France; Puerto Rico and Paris, with Chicago; and London, with New York. Surrealist thought and action have had an all-encompassing simultaneousness to them. Accordingly, the exhibition unfolds as a map rather than a timeline. The intent here is to present Surrealism as an international movement invested heavily in society and politics—in line with how its members perceived it.
As an artistic and political movement, Surrealism had an international reach and internationalist beliefs. Rooted in art and literature, it cherished much wider ambitions: to revolutionize society and redefine life itself. Today, we are again living in times of turmoil and, regrettably, we see that Surrealists’ most urgent demands—those of freedom and equality—remain unsatisfied. Accordingly our exhibition, rather than just recounting the past as distant history, is also an important lesson for the present, says Magda Lipska, one of the curators.
First presented in Munich, the exhibition now grows in Warsaw to include an additional chapter in Surrealist history, one written in Poland: it is the international collection of the a.r. group, which was assembled in the early 1930s and brought together works of such Surrealists as Max Ernst, Kurt Seligmann, and Hans Arp. We also revisit Poland’s art around 1948, drawing inspirations from Surrealism’s anti-colonialist and antifascist stance to deal with experiences of war and Holocaust. Exiled Polish artists are featured too: Franciszka and Stefan Themerson as well as Teresa Żarnower, adds co-curator Dorota Jarecka.
Surrealists demanded absolute freedom, and wanted it to permeate every section of society. Emancipation, to them, meant life liberated from any imperative on the part of the state, the nation, the church, or the bourgeoisie. And it was this openness about the political and the artistic being linked together that attracted many emancipatory movements to Surrealism. The student demonstrations of May 1968, post-war anti-totalitarian campaigns in Eastern Europe, and even the Black Liberation Movement in the United States were all inspired to an extent by Surrealist methods and beliefs. The exhibition traces these struggles as it attempts to revise the widespread preconception of Surrealism as a style in painting only meant for representing dreams, fantasies, and magic; doing away with the notion of a Surrealist canon, once again it poses this provocative question: “What is Surrealism?”
But Live Here? No thanks:
Surrealism and Anti-fascism–
Curated by Dorota Jarecka and Magda Lipska, in collaboration with Stephanie Weber, Adrian Djukić, Karin Althaus, and Paweł Polit
