A telephone receiver morphs into a lobster. A miniature train rushes from a fireplace. These are images commonly associated with Surrealism, a revolutionary idea sparked in Paris around 1924 that prioritized the unconscious and dreams over the familiar and everyday. While Surrealism has generated poetic and even humorous works, it has also been deployed by artists around the world as a tool in the struggle for political, social, and personal freedoms.

Armoire surréaliste (Surrealist Wardrobe) 1941 Marcel Jean 

Cadavre exquis (Exquisite Corpse) 1932 André Breton 

Deux enfants sont menacés par un rossignol (Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale) 1924 Max Ernst 

Surrealism is an expansive, shifting term, but at its core, it is an interrogation. It refers not to a historical moment but to a movement in the truest sense; inherently dynamic, it has traveled and evolved from place to place and time to time, and continues to do so today. Its scope has always been transnational, exceeding national borders as a unified call for liberation, while also taking on specific and local conditions.

El vuelo nocturno del pájaro Pi (The Pi Bird's Night Flight) 1952 Eugenio Granell 

Le rêve de Tobie (The Dream of Tobias) 1917 Giorgio de Chirico 

Mai 68 (May 68) 1968-73 Joan Miró 

The artworks assembled here from around the world animate some of the myriad routes into and through Surrealism. They reveal collective interests shared by artists across regions; points of convergence, relay, and exchange; individual challenges witnessed over the last hundred years in the pursuit of independence from colonialism; and the experience of exile and displacement wrought by international conflict. Neither singular in narrative nor linear in chronology, the exhibition pushes beyond traditional borders and conventional narratives to draw a map of the world in the time of the Surrealists as an interrelated network—one that makes visible many lives, locations, and encounters linked through the freedom and possibility offered by Surrealism.

Night Flight of Dread and Delight 1964 Skunder Boghossian 

Ultracorpo in Svizzera (Body Snatcher in Switzerland) 1959 Enrico Baj 

Téléphone-homard (Lobster Telephone) 1938 Salvador Dalí