Throckmorton Fine Art is presenting "Surrealism, Over a Century Merging the Realms of Dreams and Reality," a comprehensive exhibition commemorating the centennial of André Breton's influential Surrealist Manifesto. The show traces the profound impact of surrealism on photography, featuring works from Europe, the United States, and Mexico that span an entire century of artistic innovation.
When French poet and theorist André Breton published his Surrealist Manifesto in 1924, he established an unprecedented artistic vision that drew from the most electrifying dimensions of human imagination. The collective trauma of consciousness in Europe following World War I pushed surrealist artists to reject the dark realities of a modern civilization defined by violence and devastation. Instead, they embraced the unconscious and intangible realm of dreams and inner desires.
Building on Freudian psychoanalysis and energized by the radical spirit of Dada, an entire generation of painters, sculptors, writers, photographers, filmmakers, and philosophers began exploring the creative possibilities of the human psyche. In a movement that sought to distort rational perceptions of the world, photography offered a tool for manipulating the representation of reality with effects that were alternately exhilarating or disturbing.
Just as collage juxtaposed the real with the impossible, or automatic drawing gave free rein to the unconscious, various photographic techniques proved essential in the surrealist quest to liberate the hidden impulses of the mind. These techniques included double exposures, superimposed negatives, photomontages, polarizations, the use of absurd props, and theatrical lighting. Such methods became fundamental tools for artists seeking to break free from conventional representation.
The exhibition features iconic surrealist figures including Leonora Carrington, Kati Horna, and Dora Maar, but the language and spirit of the movement extend far beyond the circle of canonical artists. The show also presents numerous other photographers who adopted playful and experimental approaches inspired by surrealism. These include Edward Weston's fetishized depictions of inanimate objects, Tina Modotti's disturbing representations of quasi-human puppets, and André Kertész's distortions of the human body.
Portraits of French playwright Jean Cocteau by photographers Berenice Abbott, Lucien Clergue, and Germaine Krull are also imbued with strong surrealist sensibility. The long-term legacy of surrealism manifests in later and contemporary works, such as Graciela Iturbide's striking use of mirrors and animals, Francesca Woodman's ghostly domestic scenes, and Ana Mendieta's unsettling convergence of earth and human body.
Mexico attracted a wave of European artists from the late 1930s onward as they fled the outbreak of World War II. Beyond its European origins, the International Exhibition of Surrealism organized by Breton in Mexico City in 1940 marked a key moment in Latin America's participation in and contribution to the style. Although widely considered a European movement, the remarkable works of Mexican photographers such as Lola Álvarez Bravo, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, and María García highlight surrealism's relationship with a region that also harbored a creative imagination oriented toward the marvelous and fantastic, as seen notably in the rise of magical realism.
One hundred years after its emergence, surrealism continues to remind us of the fragile boundary between reality and fantasy. It provides a dreamlike escape in times of social and political upheaval. Yet the bizarre or grotesque images of the surrealist dream can prove just as disturbing as the absurd and often unbearable realities of the waking world. Surrealism's break with reason serves to reconfigure our vision of ourselves and bring a sharper perspective to what is real.
The exhibition is curated by María Millán, an art historian and writer. "Surrealism, Over a Century Merging the Realms of Dreams and Reality" runs through November 29, 2025, at Throckmorton Fine Art, located at 145 East 57th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10022. The gallery is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
