Magzoid Magazine - Luxury Magazine in the Creative Space | August 2022

ART NEWS
London exhibition to examine
surrealism’s
influence on design
Surrealism is the
representation of a
thought or an object as
seen and understood
by its creator. It is a
20th-century art style born from
the horrors of the first world war, as
artists began to explore and express
the subconscious mind. The art
movement saw its golden days
between the 1920s and the 1960s,
after which the decline set in as
original surrealists split into factions
with different perspectives on the
role of their art in society. Surrealists
aim to celebrate abstract realism,
an offbeat approach to art. With the
onset of the second world war, a
new wave of individualism usurped
surrealism from its place in the
artistic community.
Now, at the Design Museum in
west London, Objects of Desire:
Surrealism and Design 1924 - Today
sets out to bring this art form to the
modern date. This exhibition, set
to open on the 14th of October will
relive surrealism’s influence on the
way the design world welcomed
a revolution in art and design
ranging from the decorative arts and
furniture to more diverse creative
elements such as interior, fashion,
and photography and film making.
The collection will have
the visitors witness
the works of other
contemporaries such
as Marcel Duchamp,
Man Ray, Leonora
Carrington, Sarah Lucas,
musician Björk and
fashion photographer
Tim Walker. All in all,
the displays will belong
to the last 50 years of
surrealism.
The exhibition will also see the
display of 350 objects including
artworks by Dali, surrealism’s bestknown
artist. The collection will
have the visitors witness the works
of other contemporaries such as
Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Leonora
Carrington, Sarah Lucas, musician
Björk and fashion photographer
Tim Walker. All in all, the displays
will belong to the last 50 years of
surrealism.
Surrealists developed unique
techniques to explore the theme
through photography. Man Ray
and Maurice Tabard dabbled in
automatic writing, double exposure,
and montages to express their
perspectives. Numerous others
used rotations of the lenses to
capture unique and different lines of
sight to develop ‘surreal’ images.
The 350 exhibits will begin from
surrealism’s early days in the 1920s
and seek to understand its influence
on daily objects. Namely Gae
Aulenti’s Tour, a glass table for four
supported by four bicycle wheels.
On that tangent, Sella, a bicycle
saddle/seat mounted on a post that
extends from a hemispherical base
created by the brothers Achille and
Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, blurs the
distinction between furniture and art.
This exhibition aims to showcase
that surrealism is “still alive and
well and that it (surrealism) never
went away”, as said by the curator
of the exhibition Kathryn Johnson.
Surrealism originated from the
survivors of the horrors of the
20th century, world wars, and
influenza pandemic and art were a
balancing agent away from these
horrors. “Today, in the context of
dizzying technological change,
war, and another global pandemic,
surrealism’s spirit feels more alive
than ever in contemporary design,”
says Kathryn as it drives home the
very reason art exists… to give
meaning when words fail.
- news@magzoid.com
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