Surreal on Paper

Few movements in modern avant-garde art have had as lasting an impact as Surrealism. When this new artistic current first emerged in Paris in the 1920s, the Surrealists placed works on paper at the very core of their creative practice. Through drawings, sketches, collages, and collaborative pieces, they explored the realms of the unconscious and the instinctive. This book accompanies the exhibition Surreal on Paper at the SMK – National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen. The exhibition presents a wide-ranging collection of Surrealist works on paper by some of the movement’s key­ figures. A century on, we are invited to re-enter this unique world through a wealth of artworks and through the insights of four scholars who examine Surrealism’s relevance today and its intersections with gender, biology, nature, and the occult.