BRUSSELS | ‘Imagine! 100 Years of International Surrealism’ exhibition at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium

On 21 February, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels opened a series of exhibitions on surrealism. ‘Imagine! 100 Years of International Surrealism‘ is one of those. Thanh and I visited the exhibition a few days ago.

‘Imagine!’ is a close collaboration with the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

“An immersion in surrealist poetry, dream, the labyrinth, metamorphosis, the unknown and the subconscious, led by the great names of surrealists, from Max Ernst to Giorgio de Chirico, not forgetting Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Jane Graverol, Dorothea Tanning, Man Ray, Leonor Fini, etc”, the website says.

Each partner museum houses the core of the travelling exhibition and enriches it by emphasising its own heritage. In Brussels, the RMFAB will explore surrealism from a symbolist perspective, through more than 130 works of art. Paintings, works on paper, sculptures, objects, assemblages, and photographs.

“‘Imagine!’ focuses on the connections and similarities, but also the fracture lines between surrealism and symbolism, one of its precursors. From 1880 onwards, Brussels was an exceptional hub for the arts and the avant-garde, as demonstrated by the exhibitions of groups such as Les XX and La Libre Esthétique.”

“Symbolism, embodied in particular by Rops, Spilliaert, Khnopff, Delville and Minne, evolved rapidly in Brussels and largely anticipated the emergence of the surrealist movement. A few decades later, Brussels became a centre for Belgian surrealism. Despite the cultural rupture caused by World War I, the older symbolists and the emerging youth were never fundamentally alienated from each other.”

Curuntly and until July 2024, Belgium will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

“What better year to celebrate surrealism, the movement which put Belgium on the map, and found meaning within a European context? What’s more, 2024 also marks the hundredth anniversary of the publication of the ‘Surrealist Manifesto‘ (1924). With ‘Imagine!’, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium wish to celebrate the centenary of the birth of surrealism in an optimal European context.”

After Brussels and Paris, the exhibition will travel to the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Fundación Mapfré Madrid, before closing at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

A visit

The exhibition is located in the basement, where other temporary exhibitions are installed. There’s actually quite a lot of space to showcase paintings and other works of art.

The exhibition does what it advertises. It starts with an introduction and a history of surrealism. Where did it start, how did it end? Who where the instigators? Manifesto-author André Breton is introduced.

The works of art exhibited are also worth a closer look. ‘Pygmalion‘ by Paul Delvaux, from 1939, is a major work. Some Dalí paintings as well.

I especially appreciated the exhibition showing some risqué sketches and paintings, including drawings of an erect Jesus and other penises by René Magritte.

Unfortunately, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium don’t participate in the Museum Pass scheme anymore.

If you want an audioguide, ask for it upstairs. A QR code does link you to transcriptions, but these are silent.

Better not laugh

‘Imagine!’ is coupled to the ‘Histoire de ne pas rire. Surrealism in Belgium‘ exhibition at Bozar. That exhibition runs until 16 June.

“Bozar celebrates 100 years of surrealism with a unique exhibition on Belgium’s famous avant-garde movement. In 1924 surrealist activities also started in our country with bold pamphlets by artists including poet Paul Nougé. Belgium’s quirky surrealists go beyond the purely aesthetic – they want to transform the world with their subversive art”, the website says.

“In ‘Histoire de ne pas rire’, we pay extra attention to their international interactions, political-historical background, and important women artists. The exhibition includes works by Paul Nougé, René Magritte, Jane Graverol, Marcel Mariën, Rachel Baes, Leo Dohmen, Paul Delvaux, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dalí, Georgio de Chirico, and many others.”

Magritte & Folon

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium are also currently hosting the ‘Magritte · Folon‘ exhibition.

“As Brussels celebrates the 100th anniversary of surrealism, some of René Magritte’s works will be traveling and gracing the walls of other exhibitions and museums. The Magritte Museum is taking advantage of this period to create a dialogue between the fascinating world of René Magritte (1898-1967) and the poetic creations of Jean-Michel Folon (1934-2005). Magritte·Folon is more than an exhibition, it’s a dreamlike encounter and a fruitful dialogue between two unique worlds of imagination”, the website says.

In 1954, Jean-Michel Folon was 20 years old. He discovered ‘The Enchanted Domain‘, the series of murals Magritte had just painted for the Knokke casino. It was a revelation: ‘I thought: ‘One can really do anything in painting. Even invent mysteries.’ That was when I encountered art’, he wrote in 1999.”

Although the two artists never met, many similarities exist between their visual worlds. Folon considered Magritte, the master of Belgian surrealism and 36 years his senior, ‘one of the fathers’ of his generation.

By opening the paths of mystery in painting, Magritte laid the foundations for Folon’s art, which would never cease to explore life’s poetry. This exhibition, held at the very heart of the Magritte Museum, brings together the works of these two major Belgian artists, showcasing the connections in their imagination.

Fine Arts

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium are a federal scientific institution that is part of the Federal Public Service for Science Policy Programming. They consist of various museum entities distinct by the nature of their exhibits and located at different sites in the city of Brussels: the Musée Old Masters Museum, the Musée Modern Museum, the Musée Wiertz Museum and the Musée Meunier Museum, the Musée Magritte Museum and the Musée Fin-de-Siècle Museum.

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