By JUNE SULLIVAN
Two new exhibitions on display at Nassau County Museum of Art
"...Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of association that have been overlooked, in the supreme power of the dream, and in the detached game played by thought."
-Andre Breton, Surrealist Manifesto, 1924
Whatever one's artistic tastes, on viewing the newest collections at the Nassau County Museum of Art, visitors immediately feel that they are in the presence of greatness. Priceless paintings, primarily oils, are on display and unceremoniously identified as works by Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Rene Magritte, Jean (Hans) Arp, Gorgio de Chirico, Man Ray and Joan Miro, among others.
The Museum's two surrealism exhibitions, "Surrealism" and "Dali: Works on Paper," explore this enigmatic artistic movement- "one of the most controversial, even disturbing, aspects of 20th-century art" say exhibition organizers.
And, indeed, it is one thing to create one's subjective "impression" of a lily pond or even to "cube" and rearrange on canvas a model's body parts. For these are examples of an artist's view of his or her outside world - which had been the world's definition of the artistic process until the surrealism revolution.
But it became quite another thing entirely to dig into one's own murky subconscious seeking artistic vision, and then to paint what one sees in the recesses of the inner self. According to Museum exhibition organizers, "Surrealism, or "Surrealisme," as it was called in its Parisian epicenter, flourished in the literary and visual arts of the 1920s and 30s. It was a revolutionary mode of thought and action, one that drew heavily on Freud's theories of free association, dreams and the subconscious.
"The new Surrealists were revolting against the conventions of the then prevalent Cubist movement," says a Museum spokesperson. "As they searched for a truth beyond conventional reality, the Surrealists actively courted the bizarre, the incongruous and the irrational - in their work and in their lives."
When one thinks of the 1920s and early 1930s - the boom before the bust of the great Depression - one wonders if there could be similarities to today's "consumer confident" state of mind and artistic appreciation. And according to Museum director Constance Schwartz, there has been, indeed, a great deal of "method" to their exhibition of this artistic "madness" at this time.
"In these days of stress - which has to do with varying problems throughout the world as well as financial stress - more and more people are turning to psychology for help and support. The surrealism artistic movement is based upon the psychology readings of a particular person - in this instance, it is the artist. The ability to be able to communicate directly onto canvas what one feels in relationship to self, and I do mean self, because the subconscious is what makes up the individual, is an extraordinary experience of the artist. But it is the viewer who gets to see the innermost areas of one's mind.
"What's very interesting," continues Ms. Schwartz, "is when we see young people's art - for this is what they are dealing with. They bring to their art a sense of self without being taught that. It is almost like we are going back to a period of naivete, an imprimatur of one's inner self."
Ms. Schwartz adds that the Museum organizers worked hard to pick the real innovators of the surrealism movement, "the ones that experimented with it and created a whole different body of work that nobody had ever seen before." Up until then, she explains, artists had been painting the reality around them, and now they were painting their dreams and their innermost feelings.
In conjunction with Surrealism, The Nassau County Museum of Art is sponsoring several public programs, among them a November 5 lecture, "Stars, Stripes and Surrealists: A Conversation with Judith Young Mallin," and a December 1 tasting of wines from Dali's native Spain. Additionally, an audio tour for the exhibition will be available in the galleries. These exhibitions now on display, will run through January 14.
Nassau County Museum of Art is at One Museum Drive, off Rte. 25A in Roslyn Harbor. Hours are Tuesday -Sunday, 11 A.M. - 5 P.M. Admission is $4 adults, $3 for seniors and $2 children. Docent-led tours are offered at 2 P.M. daily except Sunday; no reservations are needed. Call (516) 484-9337 for current exhibitions, events, days/times, and directions.
(Visitors to the Museum from October 14 - 22 will unearth the Museum's annual "Gardens as Art" at the entrance to the Museum Grounds and Formal Garden. Here, under separate tents, expert landscapers, including Malverne's own Woodland Landscaping, will offer technique and artistic ideas for gardens and gardeners everywhere. In addition, on October 21-22, this program will include for children: pony rides and a petting zoo from noon to 4 P.M.; poems read by Edie Katz noon to 1 P.M., and the "Big Apple Circus to Go!" - a juggler, stiltwalker and more - from 1 P.M. to 3 P.M. Call Museum for additional information.)
