On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Manifesto of Surrealism published in 1924 and the exhibition at Centre Pompidou in Paris, Maggiore g.a.m. presents the show «La Touche Surréaliste: De Chirico | Delvaux | Matta» in its new venue at 208 Boulevard Saint Germain - 75007 Paris. The exhibition discloses the ancestral and instinctive features in the art practice of some among those Surrealists inspired by primitive cultures, ancient civilizations and exotics tribes. The artworks on view will cover different artists and different times from ancient era 'till contemporary art. The exhibition will be extended to the Garden of Palais Royal (8 Rue de Montpensier - 75001 Paris) thanks to a scenographic installation of Roberto Matta's tribal sculptures which are part of the public program of Art Basel Paris.
In the second Surrealist manifesto, André Breton wrote: 'Surrealism aimed at nothing more than provoking, from an intellectual and moral point of view, a crisis of consciousness of the most general and serious kind, and that the success or failure of this movement can only be judged by whether or not this result is achieved […] Everything suggests that there is a certain point in the mind where life and death, the real and the imaginary, the past and the future, the communicable and the incommunicable, the high and the low cease to be perceived contradictorily […] What could those who still care about their place in the world hope to gain from the surrealist experience?' The exhibition at Galleria d'Arte Maggiore g.a.m. seeks to provide an answer to this question, presenting the work of three artists who, influenced by the primitivism popular in the first half of the 20th century, created works inspired by the ancestral origins of mankind. This is the case with Paul Delvaux, represented by the extraordinary painting 'Le Clôitre' from 1957, one of the pieces closest in theme and composition to the famous 'Aurore' (1937) from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, currently on display at the Pompidou. In the case of Giorgio de Chirico, his love for the ancients appears through direct references in all his works, but in the magnificent painting 'Gladiators' from 1928, from the Rosenberg collection, the predominant theme is that of ancient Roman gladiators, which was also popular in cinema at the time - remember the film Ben Hur? The Rosenberg collection was recently - from March to May 2024 - the subject of a beautiful exhibition at the Musée Picasso in Paris. The third artist featured deserves special attention. In addition to the works exhibited at the gallery - including some paintings - Roberto Sebastian Matta's sculptures will also be on display in a large installation at the Palais Royal Gardens as part of Art Basel Paris | Public Program. Totem-like sculptures, with clear references to the tribal traditions of exotic civilizations, blend with the legacy of the Etruscans, the most ancient population that inhabited Italy long before the Romans. But let's delve into the three artists and the main works on display, through an unprecedented curatorial presentation by Alessia Calarota.
