Arts
ntertainment
Dreaming
With Open Eyes
Toronto exhibit spotlights Dada and
Surrealist art from Israel Museum.
FRAN HELLER
Special to the Jewish News
1 f one word could define Dada and Surrealist
,
art, it would be experimentation.
Consider Marcel Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel,
his first readymade, or everyday industrial
object, in which he presents a wheel mounted on a
kitchen stool as a work of art.
Or Man Ray's assemblage Cadeau (Gift), in which
an ordinary hotisehold iron bisected by a row of
nails takes on ominous overtones.
A beer mug filled with foam and a furry handle
underscores a rebellious sense of humor in Meret
Oppenheim's grouping The Squirrel.
These are but three of 230 works representing 90
artists in the traveling exhibition "Dreaming with
Open Eyes: Dada and Surrealist Art from the Vera,
Silvia and Arturo Schwarz Collection in the Israel
Museum," now showing at Toronto's Art
Gallery of Ontario (AGO) through
Sept. 8, 2002.
The exhibit reflects the passion of one
man, Arturo Schwarz of Milan, Italy. A
Jewish scholar, poet and collector, his
vision resulted in a highly comprehensive
private collection of Dada and Surrealism,
which he donated to the Israel Museum
in Jerusalem in 1998.
Some of the artists, like Man Ray and
Duchamp, are household names. But
many were saved from obscurity by
Schwarz, who wanted to remind the
public of the all-but-forgotten artists of
the Dada and Surrealist movements.
More than any other factor, it was the
carnage of World War I that brought
Dada to life. In their poems, plays and
collages, the Dadaists matched what
they saw as the meaningless of civiliza-
tion with a deliberate meaningless of
their own.
A number of the Dada artists, includ-
ing Romanian Jewish poet Tristan Tzara,
born Samuel Rosenfeld, were Jewish.
Tzara, one of the movement's
founders, reportedly took the term dada,
6/28
2002
68
a child's word for hobbyhorse (it could also mean
"nothing"), quite at random by stabbing at Larousse,
the French dictionary, with a knife.
His Calligramme, a meandering diagram of mostly
nonsensical words, encapsulates the nihilistic anti-art
philosophy of the Dada poets and writers.
Roots Of Surrealism
Like Dada, Surrealism began with poetry and auto-
matic writing, to which the artists would give visual
expression.
Michael Parke-Taylor, associate curator of
European art at AGO and in-house curator of
"Dreaming With Open Eyes," characterizes Dada
and Surrealism, in the most simplistic terms, as neg-
ative and positive currents.
Whereas Dada was a negative and more short-lived
reaction by the young who saw the entire world as
corrupt and in need of total overhaul, Surrealism, of
0 Estate of the Artist
longer duration, took a more positive approach in its
efforts to understand human nature through an in-
depth exploration of the subconscious.
Unlike Impressionism or Expressionism, Surrealism
was never limited to a particular style. One of the
great things about the Schwarz exhibition, says Parke-
Taylor, is that Surrealism is played out in so many dif-
ferent manifestations, in such forms as collage, paint-
ing, assemblage and manipulated objects.
Two artists extremely important to the develop-
ment of both Dada and Surrealism are Marcel
Duchamp and Man Ray. A significant part of the
show is devoted to their work.
Duchamp is famous for selecting everyday indus-
trial objects and calling them readymades. Examples
include his Bicycle Wheel and Bottle Dryer (Bottle
Rack). By blurring the line between art and life, the
artist raises questions about what constitutes a work
of art and what is the artist's role in the process.
Duchamp's original Fountain (the famous urinal)
created a scandal when it was first exhibited in New
York in 1917. (The one in the show was fabricated
in Schwarz's studio under the artist's supervision.)
Man Ray was born Emmanuel Radnitsky in
Philadelphia in 1890, of Russian Jewish immigrant
parents. With bitter memories of teasing at school
because of his foreign-sounding name, he became
Man Ray in his early 20s.
In 1915, Man Ray met Duchamp, spawning a 55-
year friendship (and lifelong chess partnership) in
which each artist's work influenced the other.
In Man Ray's assemblage The Enigma of Isidore
Ducasse, a sewing machine is shrouded by a blanket
and tied with string. The title alludes to the famous
statement of Comte de Lautreamont, alias Isidore
Ducasse: "Beautiful as the chance meeting of a
sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting
table."
The coupling of unusual objects to create a new
reality in Ducasse's dictum became the watchword
Kay Sage:
"The Upper Side of the Sky,"
1944, oil on canvas. The
American artist's painting
combines drapery with
architecture in an
Oz-like dream world.