Surrealism is about an effort, an energy, to find the marvellous in the everyday, to recognize the everyday as a dynamic montage of elements, to make it strange so that its strangeness can be recognized.
Ben Highmore (“Everyday Life and Cultural Theory: An Introduction”, 2002)
Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design is the first major exhibition to explore the influence of Surrealism on graphic image making and graphic design. Featuring more than 250 items – posters; prints; book, magazine and record covers; typefaces and films – Uncanny investigates the profound impact that Surrealist ideas and images had on international graphic communication from its origins in the 1930s up to the present.
Most graphic design conforms to an underlying grid, a sense of structure and professional good taste, which brings order, yet imposes limits. The images and graphics collected in Uncanny break free from these bureaucratic restrictions and follow the impulses of a wayward, subjective, dreamlike logic to arrive at their own kind of equilibrium and form.
The exhibition is organised in seven thematical sections; it includes original publications by Surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst and René Magritte and presents disquieting graphic works by Karel Teige (Czechoslovakia), Roman Cieslewicz (Poland), M/M Paris (France), Andrzej Klimowski (UK) and Edward Fella (USA) to name just a few. A final section titled Dream Cinema is dedicated to visual experimentation in moving image featuring the surrealist visions of Jan Svankmajer and the Quay Brothers amongst others.
Largely unfamiliar both to specialists in Surrealism’s history and to the public, the exciting and powerfully engaging graphic material brought together in Uncanny uncovers the presence of an alternative tradition in graphic design that enables the viewer to encounter the fantastical and rediscover a sense of mystery.
Conceived and curated by Rick Poynor, it was shown at the Moravian Gallery in Brno (Czech Republic) as part of the 24th International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno 2010. It is currently available to tour internationally.
A fully illustrated catalogue with an introductory essay by Rick Poynor is available.
For further information about the Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design tour: contact
Past touring exhibition venue:
Kunsthal, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
24 September 2011 - 4 December 2011
