Surrealism from Dali to Magritte. Hungarian National Gallery. Budapest
Oct 9th 2019
Although this was a small exhibition it was a very well-curated one and surprisingly comprehensive. There was an excellent range of art in various formats which gave a good indication of how all-embracing the movement was. One thing that came across very strongly was how turbulent the relationships between the artists were with splits and expulsions and virulent disagreements – some quite fundamental. I suppose that this was not surprising given the necessary nature of the people involved. If you have that sort of mind, then you are going to be a pretty strong and idiosyncratic person and so if a large number of people like that are gathered together then there are bound to be conflicts and strong disagreements.
Seeing the Dali works reminded me again of his technical brilliance with paint – what he could achieve! The surfaces and textures – so physical and real. Magritte was wonderful and seeing just a few examples of these sorts of works is to see them in their best way. Large exhibitions can be overwhelming (period) and particularly with this movement, I think you can begin, after a while, to almost take it for granted and not see how remarkable individual works are. Here there was no chance of that.
Excellent show then and well worth a visit while it is on.
EN.MNG.HU
The Museum of Fine Arts – Hungarian National Gallery will mount a large-scale exhibition of surrealist art. The show organised in conjunction with the Centre Pompidou is primarily based on a selection from the rich collection of the Parisian institution.