La Galerie Raphaël Durazzo presenta il «surrealismo al servizio della distrazione», riflessione mediante le opere d’arte concepita assieme alla curatrice e specialista Alyce Mahon. Una mostra dedicata a donne come Leonor Fini, Leonora Carrington e Dorothea Tanning, così come alle loro eredi contemporanee, quali sono Sarah Antsis e Piper Bangs (che creeranno opere per l’esposizione parigina), oltreché Ginny Casey, ripensatrice dello status di artista surrealista attraverso il filo che lega due generazioni.
SURREALISMO A PARIGI: DUE GRANDI EVENTI
In contemporanea alla mostra allestita presso Galerie Raphaël Durazzo avrà luogo l’altra grande esposizione sul Surrealismo al Centre Pompidou, che verrà aperta al pubblico il 4 settembre 2024 e si concluderà alcuni mesi dopo, il 13 gennaio 2025, avviando il visitatore all’itinerario de Le Paris surréaliste. Trentasei gallerie appartenenti al Comité des Galeries d’art stanno ampliando ulteriormente la mostra del Centre Pompidou con mostre uniche al fine di celebrare il centenario del Surrealismo e porre in risalto gli artisti di tale movimento. I due eventi sono uno sguardo senza precedenti sull’eccezionale effervescenza creativa del Surrealismo, nato nel 1924 con la pubblicazione del Manifesto fondatore di André Breton.
SURREALISM IN THE SERVICE OF DISTRACTION
Surrealism in the service of distraction: exhibition from September 26 to November 23, 2024, in partnership with the Centre Pompidou. From 26 September to 23 November, the Galerie Raphaël Durazzo presents the exhibition Surrealism in the service of distraction, in collaboration with curator and surrealism specialist Alyce Mahon. This exhibition, dedicated to surrealist women such as Leonor Fini, Leonora Carrington and Dorothea Tanning, as well as their contemporary heirs such as Sarah Antsis and Piper Bangs – who will create works for the show – as well as Ginny Casey, rethinks the status of the surrealist woman artist by following the thread that links the two generations.
A CONTEXTUAL EXHIBITION AT THE POMPIDOU CENTRE
In parallel with this exhibition, the gallery is associated with the major Surrealism exhibition on show at the Centre Pompidou from September 4, 2024 to January 13, 2025, via the Le Paris surréaliste itinerary. Thirty-six galleries belonging to the Comité des Galeries d’art are expanding further the Centre Pompidou exhibition with unique exhibitions to celebrate the Centenary of Surrealism and highlight the artists of this historic movement. These exhibitions offer an unprecedented insight into the exceptional creative effervescence of the Surrealist movement, born in 1924 with the publication of André Breton’s founding Manifesto.
Dorothea Tanning, Chiens ombragés (dogs in the shade), 1959, 130 x 195 cm
THREE WOMEN, THREE ARTISTS, THREE EXPERIMENTERS
The title of the exhibition alludes to the Surrealist magazine Le Surréalisme au service de la révolution (Surrealism in the service of Revolution) with the title Surrealism in the service of distraction. Dorothea Tanning (1910-2012), Leonor Fini (1907-1996) and Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) came to Surrealism not through artistic training but through discovery, recognizing in its texts and images a means of mastering their own ambitions as modern artists and women. Each played an essential role in the expansion of Surrealism beyond the first decades of experimentation through their work in oil painting, design, and sculpture.
VISIONI TRASCENDENTALI
These women artists were recognized early on through their participation in major international exhibitions such as Alfred Barr’s Fantastic Art Dada Surrealism show at New York’s MoMA in 1936 or the Exposition Intérnationale du Surréalisme at the Galerie Maeght in Paris in 1947 as well as numerous later solo and collective exhibitions internationally. In their art, they dared to stage a surrealist vision of the world that empowered woman. In so doing, they challenged the social, moral and familial expectations of the world in which they were born in a proto-feminist way; their artistic vision transcended the studio and paved the way for younger generations to activate new images of woman, liberated from the traditional role of muse and ‘Other’.
Leonora Carrington, La Dragonesa, 2010, lost wax bronze, 44 x 26 x 29 cm, édition of 10, rossogranada/ leonora Carrington Consejo / Leonor Fini, Visage imaginaire, circa 1960, watercolour on paper, 30 x 20 cm
Surrealism to Distraction features the erotic drawings of Fini alongside the kaleidoscopic landscapes of Tanning, and for the first time in France, the subversive and mythical sculptures of Leonora Carrington show a creative freedom that unites the sensual and the fantastic in the purest surrealist spirit. Their shared sense of Surrealism will be presented as manifesting a new understanding of freedom for woman through the self-portrait, the abstract nude and the matriarchal or mythological imago. This legacy emerges in the art of young contemporary artists selected for the show: Sara Anstis, Piper Bangs, Ginny Casey, and Somaya Critchlow.
THE «WORK OF DISTRACTION»
The work of «distraction» is the very opposite of concentration – distraction ensures the viewer comes into dialogue with the work and encompasses it rather than being encompassed by it; in this way the artwork reshapes our world, distracting us from reality. Two generations of women artists come into dialogue in the show, and all have been selected by Alyce Mahon, who worked on Leonora Carrington and in collaboration with Leonor Fini’s estate, for their surrealist pursuit of distraction as they explore the seductive and subversive power of the feminine, the uncanny landscape or interior, and the need to reclaim matriarchal myths. Together, the works on show in Surrealism to Distraction do not commemorate Surrealism so much as continue its liberatory work as we mark at the 100th anniversary of the first manifesto. The exhibition is organised in collaboration with rossogranada, the exclusive representatives of the Leonora Carrington Council in Europe.
Leonor Fini, Mutant, circa 1970, ink and watercolour on paper, 59 x 46 cm / Leonora Carrington, Cara Blanca, 2010, 925 sterling silver, 24-carat gold and precious stones, 4 x 5 x 0,4 cm, édition of 100, rossogranada / Leonora Carrington Consejo
GALERIE RAPHAËL DURAZZO
Founded in April 2022 in Paris by Raphaël Durazzo, the Galerie Raphaël Durazzo (23 rue du Cirque – 75008 Paris) has chosen, out of passion, to defend the Avant-Garde currents of the 20th century. After starting his professional life in the banking sector, Raphaël Durazzo soon felt the need to live out his lifelong passion for art. He took online art history courses in the evenings, met collectors and brokers, and opened his own gallery in the former Pierre Cardin boutique in the 8th arrondissement, which has become a meeting place for the greatest collectors, both French and foreign.
INFO
Practical information
Surrealism in the service of distraction
Exhibition from September 26 to November 23, 2024
Galerie Raphaël Durazzo
23 rue du Cirque 75008 Paris
Open Monday to Friday, 10am to 7pm
and Saturday, 10am to 6pm
