Midnight In Paris
Script From My Podcast, Season 1, Episode 1
This is the name of an exhibit at the Dali Museum in Saint Petersburg, Florida which highlights “Surrealism at the Crossroads, 1929” and shows the works of artists involved in the internal controversy of the Surrealist movement.
Surrealism was an important and pivotal art movement and the artists of the movement were responding to the upheaval in politics, economics and society overall following WWI. Many do not know there were actually two factions within the movement.
Surrealism was struggling to define itself and some in the movement wanted to limit the movement to painting but there were others who wanted the movement to include all the arts to include literature, poetry, music, dance and the new media of the time like photography, film or cinema and collage. Many now famous artists were included such as Salvador and Gala Dali, Max Ernst, Alexander Calder, Andre Breton, George de Chirico and Man Ray to name a few.
I always enjoy modern paintings and the interesting perspectives in works by Giorgio de Chirico and the simple forms from artists Francis Picabia and Jean Arp but my personal favorites were the photographs by Brassai and Andre Kertesz. These photographs were very modern and the play between light and shadow I found very moving. I spent much of my time in the exhibit studying these images.
I also liked seeing in person the paintings by Andre Masson and Pablo Picasso. Seeing works by these artists in University do not do them proper respect as seeing them in person. The emotion represented in these paintings show not only the artistic response to the struggle over principals within the Surrealist movement but to the shifts taking place in society following the brutality and destruction of life and property following WWI.
This exhibit is in my opinion one of the better exhibitions I have seen at the Dali and I strongly urge anyone to see these great works. Plan a trip to sunny Florida and make visiting the Dali Museum in Saint Petersburg high on your to-do list.
