Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Abandoibarra Et. 2
48001 Bilbao
+34 944359000
Spain
Surreal Things:
Surrealism and Design
February 29, 2008-
September 7, 2008

Emerging in the 1920s, Surrealism was probably the most influential and groundbreaking artistic movement in the 20th century. Surrealism's concerns and visual strategies quickly challenged and changed the world of art, design, fashion and advertising and nowadays, its influence still continues.

More than 200 objects compose the exhibition Surreal Things, the first to explore the impact of this movement on architecture, design, and the decorative arts. This new approach to Surrealism focuses on the evolution of the movement and shows the artists' commitment and engagement with the wider world of design. It highlights works such as Elsa Schiaparelli's designs, Meret Oppenheim's creations, Giorgio de Chirico's costumes and set designs for Le Bal, ceramics and paintings by Joan Miró and Jean Arp, sculptures by Alberto Giacometti, Alexander Calder's jewelry, tables and chairs by Carlo Mollino. For its presentation in Bilbao, the show will have a spectacular thematically laid out new installation design specially created for the Museum. It will also include a special tribute to two of the foremost figures of Surrealism: Salvador Dalí, whose broad creative output will be highlighted throughout the show, and Peggy Guggenheim, who amassed one of the finest collections of surrealist art the world has ever seen.

There will be a section devoted to fashion and advertising which, in addition to Schiaparelli’s unique dresses and shoe hat, will feature the recently discovered Surrealist "bird cage" from her Place Vendôme salon. Examples of how Surrealist imagery was popularized by companies such as Shell and Ford as well as magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar will also be on display.

Curator Ghislaine Wood said: “Surrealism was responsible for some of the most visually intriguing objects of the 20th century. We hope in this exhibition to explore how Surrealism entered the world of design, creating a new visual language of modernity. It grabbed the popular imagination and is still tremendously powerful today.”

Surreal Things will look at those Surrealist artists and designers who were productive before 1939 and follows their subsequent post-war careers. Among the key figures featured will be Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Elsa Schiaparelli, Marcel Duchamp, Meret Oppenheim, Man Ray, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Arp, Joan Miró, Giorgio De Chirico, Isamu Noguchi, Eileen Agar, Jean Michel Frank, Frederick Kiesler and Max Ernst.

There are more than 200 objects in the exhibition from public and private collections worldwide, many of which have never been exhibited before. On show are furniture, paintings, sculpture, architecture, fashion, jewellery, ceramics, textiles, photography, graphics and film.

Surreal Things consists of six main thematic sections — Protest: The Ballet; Surrealism and the Object; The Illusory Interior; Nature Made Strange; Displaying the Body and Dream. The exhibition will also provide a historical framework for the movement by highlighting major exhibitions, events and developments.

Man Ray, Cadeau Audace, 1921/1974, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, © Man Ray Trust/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London, 2006.

René Magritte La reproduction interdite, 1937, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2006.

Meret Oppenheim, Table with Bird's Legs, 1939, Private Collection, © DACS 2006 Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

Elsa Schiaparelli, Tear Illusion Dress, 1938, © Schiaparelli France SAS.