Surrealism in Spain 1924-1939

The acceptance of the principles behind Surrealism, converging through links to Sigmund Freud and André Bretón (Psychic Automatism) and Salvador Dalí (Symbolic Automatism), can be explained by the rapid circulation of Surrealist expression and activities via a network of not strictly Surrealist magazines echoing the Parisian art and literature of the time (Alfar, L´Amic des Arts, Helix, La Gaceta literaria and Gaceta de Arte) and the dissemination of Cahiers d´Art and Minotaure in intellectual and national art circles.

This is also a response to the prominence in the French Surrealist group of Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró and the recognition of Pablo Picasso. These figures constitute a direct reference for the work of the Spaniards: the logicofobistas and Ángel Ferrant (who appropriate the poetry of found objects and the assemblage art started by Miró in the Twenties), Palencia (the vocabulary of Picasso in lithic forms) and Juan Ismael and Ángel Planells (the use of oneiric iconography). The significant influence of André Breton, Paul Éluard, Benjamin Péret and André Masson during their years spent in Spain, covered by this exhibition, cannot be underestimated in the momentum of Spanish Surrealism.

In the words of García de Carpi, Surrealism, “not only gave rise to forms of expression that were an alternative to the conventional practices of painting and sculpture, collage, photomontage and the object, but it was also the first to bring the theme of the art of commitment to the fore.” Therefore, when the Civil War breaks out Surrealism becomes one of the outlets for channelling the drama and disasters of the conflict (Luis Fernández, Antonio Rodríguez Luna, Antoni García Lamolla and Miró) and comes to represent the backdrop of their revolution, despite it causing the exile of numerous artists.