How can we artistically capture our unconscious? The Centre Pompidou in Paris explores this question at the centenary celebration of Surrealism

Since the dawn of time, art has been rooted in the domain of the visible: from the portraits of Roman pontiffs in the 17th century to the depictions of courtesans in Edo’s Yoshiwara district; from the still lifes of fruit and game in the merchant quarters of Naples and Amsterdam to the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai. These are just a few of the countless subjects that have, over the centuries, filled the rich and vibrant spectacle of the visible world as portrayed in art. Yet, when Sigmund Freud in the 20th century unveiled the idea that rational consciousness is merely the surface of our psyche, and that much of our life is driven by emotions, dreams, urges, desires, and fears stemming from a vast, enigmatic undercurrent of the mind called unconscious — a more profound question emerged: how can art interpret this crucial but elusive part of us? How can the dreams we harbor, the fears we wrestle with, the desires we keep hidden, and the unconscious forces that drive and torment us, be transformed into images? How can art make visible that hidden dimension, which is not merely real (but sur-real!) and profoundly shapes who we are, even as it constantly slips beyond our understanding?

André Breton Manifeste du surréalisme, 1924 Manuscrit original Bibliothèque nationale de France Achat, 2021. Manuscrit classé Trésor national en 2017. Ph © BnF, Paris © Adagp, Paris, 2024

In 1924, the French intellectual André Breton conceived a new artistic and cultural movement, naming it Surrealism and providing this definition:

“Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express…the actual functioning of thought…in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern”

Surrealism seeks then to express our inner “self” in its fullest form, allowing it to emerge without the interference of reason, which compels us to suppress and conceal our instincts and emotions. The Centre Pompidou in Paris is honoring this artistic movement with a remarkable exhibition titled Surréalisme, showcasing over 500 works from collections around the globe. Under the curatorship of Didier Ottinger and Marie Sarré, this exhibition will be open from September 4, 2024, to January 13, 2025.

Visitors will first pass through a passageway, a reconstruction of the entrance to the Montmartre cabaret L'Enfer, enhanced by a clever arrangement of mirrors that creates the illusion of visitors disappearing. This experience invites attendees to abandon the rationality of their established beliefs and immerse themselves in a dreamlike, mysterious world:

“You, who are about to enter, leave all the clear ideas dictated by reason at its door. Within its walls, nature “devours progress”, night merges with day, dreams mingle with reality”

The layout of the exhibition, designed as a winding path resembling a spiral or labyrinth, carries deep significance. The labyrinth itself, with its chaotic and intricate passages, parallels the depths of our psyche. According to Greek mythology, it is also home to the Minotaur, a creature that is part human and part beast—irrational yet aware … much like our own minds?

At the heart of this enigmatic layout lies the first room, where the manuscript of the Manifesto of Surrealism is being displayed for the very first time. Breton himself guides visitors into the realm of the unconscious through an explanatory video, in which his voice has been recreated employing the latest advancements in artificial intelligence technology.

First room of the exhibition © Janeth Rodriguez Garcia

First room of the exhibition © Janeth Rodriguez Garcia

Following this, the exhibition unfolds through surreal and whimsical twists and turns. Moving from the singular to the universal, from the “inner world” of the poet in the first room to the “cosmos” of the last, a common thread is knotted around each hero (Lautréamont, Lewis Carroll, Sade) and theme (philosopher's stone, nights, dreams ...) dear to Surrealist mythology.

It has already been seen how Surrealism positions itself as a movement aimed at liberating traditional creative and cognitive processes, encouraging the creation of artworks free from rational constraints and detached from any aesthetic or moral considerations. An inescapable starting point, in this context, is the concept of dream—a direct portal to the unconscious where our deepest thoughts can express themselves without restraint: “Can't the dream also be used in solving the fundamental questions of life?” Breton wonders in the Manifesto, drawing inspiration from his deep engagement with works like Alfred Maury's Le sommeil et les rêves. The dream serves thus to access a more profound and mysterious understanding of the self, as vividly illustrated in various artworks within the room. The most renowned among these is Dali's Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening, where Dali invites the viewer into a realm of the hallucinatory visions—ferocious tigers, sexually allusive bayonets, absurd spider-legged elephants, and impossibly tranquil seas—he experienced during a bee sting while asleep.

Salvador Dalí Rêve causé par le vol d’une abeille autour d’une pomme-grenade, une seconde avant l’éveil, 1944 Huile sur bois 51 x 41 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid Ph © As per the specifications of the heirs of the Copyright owner or the managing society. Provenance: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dali / Adagp, Paris 2024

Other notable works include Odilon Redon's Les Yeux Clos, Valentine Hugo's unsettling Dream of 21 décembre 1929, and Dora Maar's Main-Coquillage, all of which explore various Surrealist themes such as eroticism, sleep, irrationality...

Dora Maar Sans titre [Main-coquillage], 1934 Épreuve gélatino-argentique, 40,1 x 28,9 cm Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris Achat, 1991 Ph © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Jacques Faujour/Dist. RMN-GP © Adagp, Paris, 2024

Third room of the exhibition © Janeth Rodriguez Garcia

In this intricate inner world, rational control gives way to chance encounters and coincidences. A new aesthetic emerges: one that diverges from the Apollonian harmony typical of many art movements throughout history, and that finds beauty in “the chance encounter on a dissecting table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella,” as famously expressed by the French poet Lautréamont, very much admired by Breton. This very principle of composition is evident in Giorgio De Chirico's Chant d'amour, showcased in the room, where a rubber glove hangs alongside the imposing plaster head of Leochares’ Apollo Belvedere.

Giorgio De Chirico Le chant d’amour, 1914 Huile sur toile 73 × 59,1 cm The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest, 1979 Ph © Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence © Adagp, Paris, 2024

The illogical juxtaposition of everyday objects removed from their usual contexts often gives rise to monstrous forms, such as the Chimeras described by Homer in the Iliad: “a lion in front, a serpent behind, and a goat in the middle.”

Fourth room of the exhibition © Janeth Rodriguez Garcia

In surrealist montages, in fact, disparate elements coexist in a way like Chimeras, creating an effect of estrangement that mirrors the free and fragmented workings of our unconscious mind. This very monster is embodied in Dorothea Tanning's Birthday.

Dorothea Tanning Birthday, 1942 Huile sur toile 102,2 × 64,8 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art: A 125th Anniversary Acquisition. Purchased with funds contributed by C. K. Williams, II, 1999 Ph © The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / image

There are, nonetheless, moments of grace in which the perception of reality remains fluid, free from rigid classifications and open to infinite possibilities. This is particularly true of children; among them, some though embody a more surreal essence than others, such as Alice from Lewis Carroll's beloved tale Alice in Wonderland. As Breton suggested, “It may be childhood that comes closest to real life”, and Carroll, with his absurd transformations and dreamlike reasoning, serves as a perfect metaphor for the Surrealist exploration of the unconscious. Like Alice, many artists – such as Magritte in Alice au pays des merveilles and Les valeurs personelles, Leonora Carrington in Green Tea, and Suzanne van Damme in Composition surréaliste – venture into a world of paradoxes, where the boundaries between the real and the fantastic dissolve, allowing for a free and wondrous exploration of what is possible.

René Magritte Les valeurs personnelles, 1952 Huile sur toile 80 x 100 cm San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, purchase through a gift of Phyllis C. Wattis Ph © San Francisco Museum of Modern Art/Photograph Katherine Du Tiel © Adagp, Paris, 2024

It should not be assumed, however, that Surrealism was merely a form of childish divertissement. Influenced by the teachings of Marx, who urged the need to "transform the world," and Arthur Rimbaud's call to "change life", Surrealist artists viewed art as a means of subverting the oppressive structures within society. This quest for collective liberation, alongside the individual exploration of the unconscious, gained urgency in the politically charged atmosphere of the 1930s, marked by the rise of various totalitarian regimes in Europe. It is no coincidence that during this period, the Surrealist movement launched a new magazine titled Minotaur, named after the bestial, man-eating creature. Infused with revolutionary fervor, artworks such as Max Ernst's L'Ange du foyer and Salvador Dalí's Soft Construction with Boiled Beans: Premonition of Civil War emerged as monstrous allegories of Francoism in Spain. The latter has been interpreted, respectively, as a polychromatic demon delighting in the devastation of the surrounding landscape, and as a macabre assembly of grotesque anatomical fragments, both serving to reflect the turmoil of their time.

Max Ernst L'ange du foyer (Le Triomphe du surréalisme), 1937 Huile sur toile 117,5 x 149,8 cm Collection particulière Ph © Vincent Everarts Photographie © Adagp, Paris, 2024

In the Surrealist pantheon, the mystery of the creative principle, symbolized by mothers, and the theme of metamorphosis, exemplified by the myth of Melusine—a fairy from medieval French literature who transforms into a snake once a week—hold great significance. This dual nature, an embodiment of human and supernatural energy that defies the boundaries of nature and identity, represents the ambiguity of the human condition, always suspended between the rational and the irrational, the known and the unconscious...

thell Colquhoun Scylla, 1938 Huile sur panneau 91,4 × 61 cm Tate. Purchased, 1977 Ph © Tate © Noise Abatement Society, Samaritans et Spire Healthcare

Central to the exhibition is also the celebration of the darkness of the unconscious—a labyrinth of visions and sensations where one can easily become lost. This theme draws on the symbols of the forest, already described by the French poet Charles Baudelaire as a “temple in which living pillars sometimes give voice to confused words,” filled with unexpected connections among various phenomena, and of the “the ineffable, holy, mysterious night” evoked by the German poet Novalis, that allows the forces of the unconscious to break free from the constraints of daylight. One notable canvas in this section is Max Ernst's The Forest, which depicts a dense and ominous curtain of tree trunks. Created using the frottage technique, this work applies paint to a surface in contact with wood, revealing its textures and celebrating the poetics of coincidence and chance that we have previously discussed. In contrast, the essence of the Surrealist night is illustrated through Extreme Nuit by Leonor Fini, an artist inspired by “the night in Pompeii, and in the Gothic Rhineland, and Caravaggio and the German romantics,” as well as Magritte's L'Empire des Lumières, which presents a dark, nocturnal street scene juxtaposed against a pastel-blue sky filled with fluffy cumulus clouds.

René Magritte L’Empire des lumières, 1954 Huile sur toile 146 x 114 cm Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Bruxelles Ph © Bruxelles, MRBAB / photo : J. Geleyns – Art Photography

Finally, the final rooms are dedicated to the philosopher's stone, a symbol of alchemical transformation, a “science of Love, founded on the natural law of analogy by which all kingdoms and all levels of existence communicate” as stated by Bernard Roger, the group's alchemist...

Remedios Varo Papilla estelar, 1958 Huile sur masonite 91,5 × 60,7 cm Colección FEMSA Ph © FEMSA Collection © Adagp, Paris, 2024

...and to eroticism, drawing inspiration from the literary and existential journey of the Marquis de Sade. The author of Philosophie dans le boudoir, in which eros emerges as a darkly primal force that challenges societal conventions, profoundly influenced Bellmer's Doll, where the grotesquely disarticulated body of a young maiden defies the ideal of physical perfection propagated by the Nazi regime, and Dali's The Great Masturbator.

The room "Les larmes d'Eros" with Bellmer's dolls © Janeth Rodriguez Garcia

Salvador Dali Visage du grand masturbateur, 1929 Huile sur toile 110 × 150 cm Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid Legado Salvador Dalí, 1990 Ph © Photographic Archives Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala

The final stage of this journey is the Cosmos, for as André Masson observes, “there is nothing inanimate in the world, a correspondence exists between the virtues of minerals, plants, stars and animal bodies”. This connection between the microcosm (the human as a reflection of the universe) and the macrocosm is beautifully illustrated in Femmes encerclées par le vol d'un oiseau by Joan Miró.

In conclusion, in this exhibition, philosopher's stones, erotic tears, nocturnal forests, totalitarian monsters, childlike tributes to Lewis Carroll, and sewing machines alongside umbrellas on a dissecting table all converge in a dazzling unity. The showcase transcends the lines separating realism from sur-realism, presenting a profound journey through the deepest dimensions of human experience and artistic imagination.