This is Surrealism!

The forty most important and most representative works from the original list of exhibits have been chosen to tell the story of Surrealism. In addition, the ground floor of the museum features a presentation of work by Cobra artists. The two exhibitions bridge the collection areas for which the two museums are known: Surrealism and Cobra. These movements not only followed each other chronologically, but also shared similar ideas and ideals. Both the Surrealists and the artists associated with Cobra hoped to bring about permanent social change through their art. Their critical attitude is reflected in the current era in which many people believe that we should organise society differently.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s Surrealist Collection

All the works in the exhibition come from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s world-famous collection of Surrealist art. Collected from the 1960s onwards, it features more than 150 works by artists such as Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Man Ray and Max Ernst plus many rare books and magazines. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen organised a major retrospective exhibition of Salvador Dalí’s work in 1970. During the preparations, curator Renilde Hammacher-Van den Brande was introduced to the wealthy British poet and collector Edward James, who was Dalí’s main collector and patron in the 1930s. When James heard that Hammacher wanted to organise Dalí’s first European retrospective, he decided to loan countless works from his collection to the museum. After the exhibition, which had been extremely successful, James and the board of his foundation decided to give several works to the museum on permanent loan. When the foundation was in need of money not much later, the museum had the opportunity to buy as many as fourteen important paintings and gouaches by Dalí and Magritte from James.

These works now form the heart of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s unique Surrealist collection, which is regularly enriched with new acquisitions. The museum has recently acquired several paintings and works of art on paper by Leonora Carrington, Eileen Agar and Joseph Cornell, some of which are being exhibited for the first time in ‘This is Surrealism!’.