Surrealism: From the MMofA & MOMA Collections

The paintings and sculpture in this gallery are by some of the most prominent Surrealist artists in history. Max Ernst and Yves Tanguy had been members of one of two rival Surrealist groups of artists and writers in 1924. After the outbreak of the Second World War, the artists of each of these works immigrated to the United States, except Peter Blume, whose family had left Russia for New York City in 1912, and Enrico Donati, who had been in America since 1934.

Kay Sage, an American by birth, married Yves Tanguy and brought him to New York. Max Ernst, after escaping a Gestapo prison camp, came to New York with the help of Peggy Guggenheim in 1941, whom he married by the end of the year. Jimmy Ernst, Max Ernst’s son arrived in 1938 after his mother’s apartment had been searched by the S.S. Kurt Seligmann left Paris for New York City in 1939. The art that these men and women made in the United States not only enriched Surrealism as a European art movement in exile but inspired Americans, many of whom could now for the first time witness advanced European art in person, to use their pictorial methods in making a distinct American version of Surrealism.

In this gallery, you will see Surrealist and Surrealism-inspired artworks from MMofA’s permanent collection created in the 100 years that have passed since Surrealism began.