Surrealism and the Visual Arts: Theory and Reception

This study traces the development of Surrealist theory of visual art and its reception, from the birth of Surrealism to its institutionalization in the mid-1930s. Situating Surrealist art theory in its theoretical and discursive contexts, Kim Grant demonstrates the complex interplay between Surrealism and the critical expectations of contemporaries. She examines the challenge to Surrealist art raised by the magazine Cahiers d'Art, which promoted a group of young painters dedicated to a liberated and poetic painting process that was in keeping with the formalist evolution of modern art. Grant also discusses the centrality of visual art in Surrealism as a material manifestation of poetry; the significance of poetry in French theories of modern art; and the difficulties faced by an avant-garde movement at a time when contemporary audiences expected revolutionary innovation.