Frist Center for the Visual Arts

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Twilight Visions
Surrealism, Photography, and Paris
September 10, 2009–January 3, 2010

Including more than 120 photographs by such artists as Man Ray, Eugène Atget, Brassaï, Hans Bellmer and André Kertész, Twilight Visions will celebrate Paris as the literal and metaphoric foundation of Surrealism. In addition to examining the revolutionary social, aesthetic and political activities of the movement between the world wars, the exhibition will focus on works—predominantly photographs as well as select films, books and period ephemera—that evoke the mystery of the chance encounters experienced by the Surrealists as they wandered through the labyrinthine city streets.

Organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts with guest curator Therese Lichtenstein, Ph.D.

See a complete schedule of programs related to this exhibition.
 

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Click here to download an audio tour for this exhibition.


Hear curator Katie Delmez discuss the Twilight Visions exhibition on Nashville Public Television's Arts Break.




Accompanying the exhibition will be a full-color illustrated exhibition catalogue, published by the University of California Press, with essays by Dr. Lichtenstein, as well as by other noted scholars, including British historian Colin Jones, Julia Kelly, lecturer at the University of Manchester; and Whitney Chadwick, professor of art at San Francisco State University.

The exhibition will travel to the International Center of Photography in New York,
Jan. 29–May 9, 2010, and to the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Ga. June 4–Sept. 30, 2010.


The Frist Center would like to thank the Culturesfrance and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy for their support in organizing the Surreal to Reel: Paris on Film series as well as for providing the films L’Atalante and Hotel du Nord.



Program Sponsor: 


Location: Upper-level Galleries


Learn more

 

Suggested reading:

Breton, André. Manifestos. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1969.

Caws, Mary Anne. Surrealism. London: Phaidon Press, 2004.

Krauss, Rosalind. L’Amour fou: Photography and Surrealism. New York: Abbeville Press, 1985.

Lichtenstein, Therese. Twilight Visions: Surrealism and Paris. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.  (This book accompanies the exhibition.)


Suggested reading for kids:

Carle, Eric. Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me. Natick, Mass.: Distributed by Alphabet Press, 1986.

Johnson, Stephen T. Alphabet City. New York, N.Y.: Viking, 1995.

Johnson, Stephen T. City by Numbers. New York, N.Y.: Viking, 1998.

Wenzel, Angela, Salvador Dalí, and Rosie Jackson. The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Salvador Dalí (Adventures in Art). Prestel Publishing, 2003.

Wenzel, Angela. René Magritte: Now You See it – Now You Don’t (Adventures in Art). Prestel
Publishing, 1998.


Web Sites:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm
• General overview of Surrealism

http://www.cnac-gp.fr/education/ressources/ENS-Surrealistart-EN/ENS-Surrealistart-EN.htm
• Overview of Surrealism by the Pompidou Center, Paris
• Includes origins, artists, glossary, and chronology

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/phsr/hd_phsr.htm
• Connection between Surrealism and Photography

http://andrebreton.org/
• Information on André Breton

http://pers-www.wlv.ac.uk/~fa1871/whatsurr.html
• “What is Surrealism?” by André Breton

http://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T340/SurManifesto/ManifestoOfSurrealism.htm
Surrealist Manifesto by André Breton

http://www.ehow.com/how_2123751_appreciate-surrealist-films.html
• Guide to appreciating Surrealist films


Image: André Kertész. Eiffel Tower, 1929. Gelatin-silver print, 9 1/8 in. x 11 ¾ in. Purchase, gift of Mr. Edwynn Houk, Renée & Paul Mansheim, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Lane Stokes, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Robert K. Molloy, Mr. Robert McLanahan Smith, III, Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Waitzer, Mr. Calvin H. Childress, Mr. and Mrs. Howard M. Martinez, Jr., and in memory of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA. © Estate of André Kertész/Higher Pictures