moma: #tbt to “Fantastic Art, Dada, and Surrealism,” the second in a series of exhibitions in which
moma: #tbt to “Fantastic Art, Dada, and Surrealism,” the second in a series of exhibitions in which founding director Alfred H. Barr, Jr. teased out his narrative of modern art. The first, “Cubism and Abstract Art,” was launched early in 1936, and the second followed at the end of the year; where the former was an exploration of the emergence of geometric abstraction, Fantastic Art looked at artists’ interest in the irrational, subconscious, and biomorphic in modern work. All four floors of the Museum were filled with nearly 700 works by artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Max Ernst. The most comprehensive presentation of Dada and Surrealism prior to World War II, it introduced American audiences to these seminal art movements. MoMA acquired multiple works from the exhibition, the starting point of what is now a significant collection of Dada and Surrealist artworks.Read the out-of-print catalogue, see images of the installation, and more at mo.ma/2grKP4q. -- source link