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.