Surrealism at The Carlyle

Blain|Di Donna had its first historical group exhibition, Dada & Surrealist Objects last Thursday night. This was the first show devoted to this important subject ever presented in any gallery or museum in America, and has been curated in association with the well-known specialist in Dada and Surrealist art, Timothy Baum. The exhibition presents a retrospective overview of all aspects of this subject, and encompasses a full choice of works by every serious creator of objects from both the Dada and Surrealist groups. Chronologically, this exploration begins with Marcel Duchamp, whose invention of the ready made in 1913 gave birth to the separation of found or handmade objects from the more limited world of sculpture, usually confined to plaster, bronze, marble and occasionally carved wood that had previously represented, exclusively, the realm of the third dimension in art.

The presentation is augmented by a group of vintage photographs by Raoul Ubac depicting various objects created by Surrealist artists for the International Surrealism Exhibition in Paris in 1938: mannequins decorated by Man Ray, Max Ernst and others, and two works by Dalí: The Aphrodisiac Table (with Lobster Telephone) and the environmental phenomenon, Rainy Taxi.

BLAIN|DI DONNA is located at 981 Madison Avenue, NYC (Inside the Carlyle Hotel). The show runs from October 25 – December 13, 2013. Opens Monday through Friday: 10am–6pm
Saturdays November 2, 9 & 16: 10am–6pm.