Histoire de ne pas rire. Le Surréalisme en Belgique (2024 exhibition at Bozar)

René Magritte : Le Bain de cristal, 1946, gouache, collection privée © Photothèque R. Magritte, Adagp Images, Paris, 2019.

Xavier CANONNE (sous la dir. de), Histoire de ne pas rire. Le surréalisme en Belgique, Fonds Mercator et Bozar Books, 2024, 288 p., 49 €, ISBN : 978-94-6230-371-3

" Histoire de ne pas rire. Le Surréalisme en Belgique "

Jusqu'au 16 juin 2024.

Bozar

Le Palais des Beaux-Arts / Centre for Fine Arts

Ravensteinstreet 23

1000 Bruxelles

Visited on 20 April 2024

OFFICIAL : " Bozar commémore les 100 ans du surréalisme avec une exposition consacrée au célèbre mouvement d'avant-garde belge sur une période de pas moins de 60 ans. 1924 : comme à Paris, les activités surréalistes commencent dans notre pays avec des pamphlets audacieux du poète Paul Nougé, entre autres, véritable fil rouge de cette exposition. "

" Les surréalistes singuliers de Belgique vont au-delà de l'esthétique pure - ils veulent transformer le monde avec leur art subversif. Dans Histoire de ne pas rire, nous accordons une attention particulière à leurs contacts internationaux, au contexte politico-historique et aux femmes artistes importantes. Comprend des œuvres signées, entre autres, Paul Nougé, René Magritte, Jane Graverol, Marcel Mariën, Rachel Baes, Leo Dohmen, Paul Delvaux ainsi que Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dalí, Giorgio De Chirico et bien d'autres. "

The title of the exhibition means "Not a laughing matter". It refers to a familiar saying in Belgian conversation. It also refers to the title of a book of the collected writings by the Belgian surrealist Paul Nougé: Histoire de ne pas rire (Bruxelles: Les Lèvres nues, 1956).

AA: The centenary exhibition of Belgian surrealism at Bozar is arguably an even greater revelation than the exhibition of international surrealism at MRBAB (Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique). The surrealist movement started in Belgium simultaneously with France, but where the French movement was officially terminated in 1969, the Belgian movement continued at least until the 1980s and apparently never ended.

With 238 works on display, the Bozar exhibition is bigger than the one at MRBAB. Quantity turns to quality. This exhibition is about the versatility of surrealism. Among other things, it is a many-sided tribute to René Magritte, whose career we follow from 1920 until 1965 in the context of mentors and friends such as Paul Nougé and Marcel Mariën. Magritte's inspirer Giorgio di Chirico is also on display. This is a story of networks, friendships, publications and events that promoted the movement. During his transition to surrealism, Magritte moved from suspicious Brussels to supportive Paris, but in 1934, the first international manifestation of surrealism was arranged in Brussels - at Le Palais des Beaux-Arts, today's Bozar.

In the foreword to the exhibition catalogue, Christophe Slagmuylder and Zoë Gray condense seven characteristics of Belgian surrealism:

1. Le couple inséparable du mot et de l'image. / The inseparable pairing of word and image.

2. L'humour subversif narguant l'autosatisfaction et les collègues surréalistes. / The subversive sense of mockery towards complacency and fellow surrealists.

3. Les images oniriques tirées du quotidien ou d'une vision fascinée par un étrange réalité. / The oneiric images drawn from the everyday or from an enthralled vision of a strange reality.

4. La sobriété scientifique dans la lutte contre la raison. / Scientific sobriety in the combat against reason.

5. L'anonymat maîtrisé du groupe. / Anonymity cultivated by a group.

6. La croyance - temporaire - dans le communisme. / Temporary faith in communism.

7. Le paradoxe de petits bourgeois bien mis qui se transforment en révolutionnaires au service de la communisme. / The paradox of well placed petits bourgeois transforming into revolutionaries in the communist cause.

Even from a strictly Belgian viewpoint it is rewarding to view also the MRBAB international exhibition, because it casts its web deeper into the Belgian roots in symbolism in works by Jean Delville, Guillaume Vogels, Fernand Khnopff, Max Klinger and León Dardenne. 

The affinity of symbolism and surrealism reminds us of connections even further in the past - in Deutsche Romantik (Caspar David Friedrich) and Gothic fiction (Edgar Allan Poe). William Blake, Giuseppe Archimboldo and the Brueghel family are also meaningful in the context, to say nothing about indigenous art and sacred objects in many cultures.

The main difference between the old masters and the artists of the surrealist movement is that the latter were conscious about the unconscious. They practised automatic writing and the interpretation of dreams in awareness of psychoanalysis. "Wo Es war soll Ich werden". But that very awareness made surrealists seem dull and predictable in the eyes of Freud.

The whole is bigger than the sum of its parts in this exhibition. I liked particularly:

Marcel Mariën: La Traversée du rêve (1938-1945). Assemblage, 62,7 x 5,6 cm. Collection privée

René Magritte: Autoportrait (1923). Huile sur bois. 43,1 x 35,5 cm. Collection Sisters L

Pierre-Louis Flouquet: Composition (1920-1922). Huile sur toile. 156 x 117 x 5 cm. Anvers, Galerie Ronny Van de Velde

Marcel Stobbaerts: Portrait de Marthe Beauvoisin (Portrait de Madame Nougé) (1926). Huile sur toile, 93 x 60 cm. Bruxelles, MRBAB

Giorgio De Chirico: Les Plaisirs du poète (1912). Huile sur toile. 69 x 86 cm. Esther Grether Family Collection

René Magritte: La Traversée difficile (1926). Huile sur toile. 80 x 65 cm. Collection R. Vanthournout

Max Ernst: La Révolution la nuit (1923). Huile sur toile. 116,2 x 88,9 cm. Tate, acquis en 1981, inv. T03252

Man Ray: Boule de neige (1927-1928). Photographie. 20,2 x 15,5 cm. Gand, Amsab-Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, inv. fo028393

E. L. T. Mesens: La Lumière déconcertante (1926). Collage et photographie. 23 x 16,9 cm. Gand, Amsab-Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, inv. fo028003

René Magritte: Portrait de Paul-Gustave Van Hecke (1928). Huile sur toile. 65 x 60 cm. Courtesy Opera Gallery

Joan Miró: Tête de fumeur (1924). Huile sur toile. 51 x 66,5 cm. Musée communal d'Ixelles, inv. MJ 34

Paul Nougé: L'Ombre et son ombre (1932). Épreuve à la gelatine argentique, tirage moderne, 27,7 x 27,9 cm. Charleroi, Musée de la Photographie, inv. MPC 96/568

Paul Nougé: Subversion des images : Les Vendanges du sommeil ou Yeux clos, bouche scellée - Les Buveurs - Manteau suspendu dans le vide - Femme étendue sur une cheminée ou Les profondeurs du sommeil - La Naissance de l'object ou Les Spectateurs - Femme effrayée par une ficelle (1929-1930). Photographies, Anvers, Coll. Sylvio Perlstein --- [reproduction de négatifs par Marc Trivier] Le Grenier - Cils coupés - Femmes au miroir - La Vengeance - Table aimantée, tombeau du poète - Le Fard - Mur murmure - Femme dans l'escalier - ... les oiseaux vous poursuivent - Linges et cloche - Le Lecteur - La Jongleuse - Le Bras révélateur (1929-1930). Photographies, 20 x 30 cm. Bruxelles, AML. 00568/0087-0105

Paul Delvaux: L'Incendie (1935). Huile sur toile. 140,2 x 85,5 cm. Bruxelles, MRBAB, inv. 11541

Raoul Ubac: La Chambre (1938). Épreuve gélantino-argentique, 53,8 x 75 cm. Paris, Centre Pompidou - Musée national d'Art moderne - Centre de Création industrielle, inv. AM 1988-649

Marcel Lefrancq: the Parc de Mons series (1938-1939). Épreuves à la gélatine argentique, tirages modernes, 28,2 x 28.4 cm. Charleroi, Musée de la Photographie

Raoul Ubac: La Nébuleuse (1938). Épreuve à la gélatine argentique, tirage d'époque. 11,7 x 8,7 cm. Charleroi, Collection de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, en dépôt au Musée de la Photographie, inv. APC 22.048

René Magritte: La Liberté de l'esprit (1948). Huile sur toile, 100 x 80 cm. Charleroi, Collection du Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. 340 01000156

Paul Delvaux: L'Aube sur la ville (1940). Huile sur toile, 172 x 202 cm. Belfius Art Collection, inv. 13222

Surrealism was a celebration of l'amour fou - mad love. It was the central tenet, fundamental and profound, in the art and life of the surrealists (René Magritte / Georgette Berger, Louis Aragon / Elsa Triolet, Man Ray / Kiki de Montparnasse, Lee Miller...). L'amour fou is the keyword to Un chien andalou and L'Âge d'Or. It is also the key to favourite movies of the surrealists such as Peter Ibbetson. It is also the reason why Vertigo is relevant here (the Edgar Allan Poe connection).

Female nudity and sexuality is a major subject (I was about to write "asset") in surrealist art. There was a male bias in the movement, as in the art world in general. I hesitate to write "male gaze", but it is justified here. Female artists such as Jane Graverol and Rachel Baes get represented in the Bozar surrealist exhibition from the 1940s onwards. 

The first surrealist film-maker was Germaine Dulac, but she was unhappy with Antonin Artaud's screenplay for La Coquille et le clergyman. Since Maya Deren there has been a growing prominence of female avantgarde in the cinema, including surrealist affinities.

Both catalogues are valuable keepsakes. They contain the illustrations in extenso. As usual today, the reproductions fail to convey the true colour brightness of the artworks.

...

On a personal note, my earliest memory of surrealism is a reproduction of La persistència de la memòria (ES 1931) by Salvador Dalí. That was in the 1960s, and at the time, surrealism, often mixed with psychedelia, was prominent in pop culture, including in poems, lyrics and songs by Bob Dylan, John Lennon and David Bowie. I have written two books on the music video, and my fascination started with works such as The Beatles: Strawberry Fields Forever (GB 1967, D: Peter Goldmann) and David Bowie: Ashes to Ashes (GB 1980, D: David Bowie & David Mallet). Lennon's standup piano with strings turned into a cobweb evoke the grand piano in Un chien andalou. The barren trees remind us of Dalí's Persistence of Memory. Bowie's Beachy Head appears as "a strand of eternity" like Dalí's Portlligat.