Surrealism and Anti-fascism

The topicality of Surrealism today

Surrealism was not only an international artistic movement, but also a political one. Its members denounced European colonial policy, opposed fascist regimes, fought for the Spanish Republic, were persecuted, went into exile, and died in war. They wrote poetry, deconstructed the language of a supposedly rational world, worked on paintings, collective drawings, took photographs, and made collages. Surrealism was associated with later emancipatory concerns not as a style, but as a method, and was taken up by the student protests of the 1960s and the Black Liberation Movement. This catalogue is published on the occasion of an exhibition at the Lenbachhaus Munich. In the form of an anthology, it presents pivotal texts and manifestoes of political Surrealism from its beginnings to current references in art and politics. It thus offers a valuable contribution to revising the still narrowly defined Surrealist canon.