Tate Modern's Surrealism: Desire Unbound (Sept 2001)
Related: Surrealism - desire - Tate
Desire Unbound was an exhibition on surrealism organized at the Tate gallery in 2001. Its emphasis was on the libidinal tropes of surrealism. For the first time, it prominently put the work of transgressive artist Hans Bellmer on the map.
Exhibition
Surrealism is a rattling of furry teacups, a heavy breather on the lobster telephone. The surprising, shocking thing about surrealism is that it no longer terrorises. Its adventures into the territories of desire, into dreams and the unconscious, into taboo and transgression, are now the commonplaces of advertising, fashion shoots, movies and computer games: it is a dream that has turned into a thousand commercials. Every taste is now catered for, the most arcane fetishes and extreme pornographies are just a click away on the internet. The frisson is long gone. Dali is a poster, reproduction Max Ernsts and Joan Miros hang on living-room walls, and instead of founding a revolution, surrealism is a module on an arts foundation course. Is this what happens when desire is unbound? Is this some kind of apotheosis? --Adrian Searle, guardian.co.uk, 2001 http://www.guardian.co.uk/surrealism/story/0,1339,554488,00.htmlSurrealism: Desire Unbound (2001) - Jennifer Mundy (editor)
Surrealism: Desire Unbound (2001) - Jennifer Mundy (editor)
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Surrealism: Desire Unbound is not only a wonderfully produced catalog to accompany the Tate Modern's excellent surrealism exhibition but also a compelling addition to surrealist studies in its own right. As lavishly illustrated as you could hope for (no fewer than 300 color illustrations), the book really owes its strength to the quality of the essays, which come from some of the best art historians around. Professor Dawn Ades, the consultant editor, contributes "Surrealism, male-female," which builds on themes of sexuality and the notion of the fluidity of the category of gender so important to the surrealists, which she (and others, see particularly Surrealism and Women) has previously addressed elsewhere; her book on Marcel Duchamp, a constant reference point for so much modern art, is particularly good. Hal Foster (well known for his argument that the 1990s saw the return to bodies and spaces in art in his thought-provoking The Return of the Real) adds a superb essay on the objectification and fetishization of women within surrealist photography. David Lomas walks us through the influence of Freud (arguably the first theorist of desire and psychoanalysis) on surrealism, and Annie Le Brun rounds off the book with a look at the invention of desire by surrealism and its adoption by modernity. Desire, as a category and as an impetus, compelled much of the art and thinking of the surrealists, and this excellent volume does much to explore and problematize the issues surrounding sex, gender, and identity (the subtitle of the essential Women in Dada, which should certainly be consulted when broaching these issues) that obsessed these important artists and their often iconic art. This is a big, beautiful, and bold book that does the surrealists proud. --Mark Thwaite, Amazon.co.uk
Chapter One: LETTERS OF DESIRE by Jennifer Mundy
Chapter Two: THE OMNIPOTENCE OF DESIRE: SURREALISM, PSYCHOANALYSIS AND HYSTERIA by David Lomas
Chapter Three: "PRIERE DE FROLER": THE TOUCH IN SURREALISM by Julia Kelly
Chapter Four: ANAMORPHIC LOVE: THE SURREALIST POETRY OF DESIRE by Katharine Conley
Chapter Five: BOOKS OF LOVE--LOVE BOOKS by Vincent Gille
Chapter Six: LIVES AND LOVES by Vincent Gille
Chapter Seven: SURREALISM, MALE-FEMALE by Dawn Ades
Chapter Eight: VIOLATION AND VEILING IN SURREALIST PHOTOGRAPHY: WOMAN AS FETISH, AS SHATTERED OBJECT, AS PHALLUS by Hal Foster
Chapter Nine: HISTORY, PORNOGRAPHY AND THE SOCIAL BODY by Carolyn J. Dean
Chapter Ten: CRITIQUE OF PURE DESIRE, OR WHEN THE SURREALISTS WERE RIGHT by Neil Cox
Chapter Eleven: STAGING DESIRE by Alyce Mahon
Chapter Twelve: DESIRE--A SURREALIST "INVENTION" by Annie Le Brun
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