Romantic Surrealism

By arousing awareness of encounters with the wondrous – with dream worlds, the dark side, collective adventures, magical forests, the inner cosmos and lived poetry – Surrealism shaped the twentieth century like no other movement. To mark the 100th anniversary of its inception in Paris, the Kunsthalle is presenting over 150 iconic international works as well as new discoveries against the backdrop of an era that provided spiritual inspiration: German Romanticism. Along with explicit tributes to Romantic artists, intriguing dialogues between key works and work groups highlight both affinities and differences between the two movements. Visitors will dis-cover that the attitudes, themes, motifs and working methods of Caspar David Friedrich, Philipp Otto Runge, Novalis, Achim and Bettina von Arnim, and others resonated in surprising ways with artists such as Max Ernst, Meret Oppenheim, André Masson, Valentine Hugo, Salvador Dalí, Toyen and René Magritte as they searched for a revolutionary new art form. The project represents a unique focus within the European centenary celebrations of Surrealism and is the first collaboration between the Kunsthalle and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.