Photographers hunting for dreams and the deepest desires

In October 1924 the ‘Surrealist Manifesto’ was published, with which André Breton and his acolytes would change the history of arts and literature. The Loewe Foundation and PHotoEspaña anticipate the anniversary with ‘Centenario Surrealista’, an exhibition that shows the decisive impact of this revulsive current on photography. It brings together at the Leica Gallery Madrid until September 14, 45 images from 24 artists and groups who set out to ‘photograph’ or ‘radiograph’ dreams and the deepest desires. Photos that show how throughout an entire century surrealism filtered and was assumed, consciously or not, to enrich the composition, the theme and the aesthetics of photographic practice.

After the First World War and with Freudian psychoanalysis as a backdrop, surrealism emerged as a movement that promoted the unconscious and intangible sphere of dreams and most intimate desires, embracing all the creative possibilities of the human psyche.

At that time, the work of Man Ray, Lucía Moholy and Kertész was emerging in Europe. Buñuel was clearing the way for surrealism in cinema and Cartier-Bresson was already hunting for decisive moments. Edward Weston and Tina Modotti arrived from the United States to Mexico, where the traditions and captivating light of the country led them to explore with their cameras other ways of showing the beauty and feeling of a town.

They are all in the exhibition curated by María Millán, which reveals “how the dreamlike and the surreal became a powerful and effective tool to manipulate the representation of reality.” “I think that what is happening now is definable as surreal, so today we need surreal tools to move forward, to answer, express or say what may be unfair,” Millán ventures.

The different techniques used – multiple exposures, superimposed negatives, photomontages or solarizations, the use of absurd props and theatrical lighting – were thus “fundamental in the search for the distortion of the rational perception of the world to reconfigure one’s vision and examine the real.” from a more astute perspective,” says Millán.

«Artists needed to express themselves; Artists drew, painters painted, and photographers also wanted to express themselves with the elements they had at hand. The manipulation of photography allows them to express themes inexpressible in any other way with surreal tools,” says the curator.

Unpublished in Spain

Provided by Throckmortion Fine Art and Astudillo Collection, most of the images, in black and white and small format, are ‘vintage’, original print runs that are seen for the first time in Spain. The exhibition opens with a portrait of Breton in Saint Circ Lapopie in 1950, by Cartier Bresson, and closes with the premonitory ‘New York 1988’, by David Wojanorowitcz. Both “evidence the enormous impact of surrealism on photography around the world,” says Millán.

He has also selected images of Dora Maar, Man Ray, Kati Horna, André Kertész, Berenice Abbott, Germaine Krull, Lucien Clergue, Philippe Halsman, Edward Weston, Tina Modotti, Horst P. Horst, Graciela Iturbide, Francesca Woodman, Ana Mendieta, Manuel and Lola Álvarez Bravo, Marion Scemama María García, Barbara Morgan, Imogen Cunningham, Edward Steichen, HIRO, Genia Rubin. “There is no Spanish artist,” laments Millán.

‘Ode to Necrophilia’ (1962) by Kati Horna (1912-2000) summarizes the spirit of the exhibition. Leonoa Carrington poses for Horna as a hooded widow dressed in stark black next to a bed of white sheets on whose pillow she rests a snowy death mask. “The photo impacts both for what it shows and for what it tells and is not in the image,” says the curator, who points it out as “a perfect example of the artist’s search to find desire in periods of loss and pain.” . Something similar happens with the portrait ‘Eyes Wide Open’ (1983) by Kiki Smith, where hands cover a face that reveals open and very revealing eyes between the clenched fingers.

DF connection

As a nod to the International Exhibition of Surrealism organized by Breton in Mexico City in 1940, the exhibition focuses on how important Latin America was in surrealism, due to the contribution of artists such as Leonora Carrington, Kati Horna or Remedios Varo who, fleeing from war in Europe, they settled in Mexico.

There are photos by Manuel and Lola Álvarez Bravo, Rosa Covarrubias, María García or Graciela Iturbide that show “the impact of surrealism in a region that housed a creative imagination that leaned towards the marvelous and the fantastic, later known as magical realism,” he concludes. Millan.