A beautiful, panoptic companion to the most comprehensive Surrealist exhibition ever organized in Canada.

Since its origins in the 1920s, Surrealism has incited provocative ideas among the 20th century's greatest artists. This summer, an ambitious exhibition by the Vancouver Art Gallery will trace the development of the movement and its bold and inventive works. The Colour of My Dreams is a thematic history of the Surrealist movement, addressing the work of its major artists, including Hans Bellmer, Andre Breton, Joseph Cornell, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Rene Magritte, Man Ray, Andre Masson, Lee Miller, Joan Miru and Yves Tanguy, and its diverse mediums: painting, sculpture, collage, drawing, box construction, film and photography. This sumptuously illustrated book features a major essay by acclaimed Surrealist art scholar and guest curator Dawn Ades, and contributions by other leading scholars in North America and Europe.

The Colour of My Dreams also includes an examination of the complex relationship between the Surrealists and the art of the Northwest Coast, which was enthusiastically studied and collected by Surrealist artists such as Breton, Ernst, Robert Lebel, Wolfgang Paalen and Kurt Seligmann and which proved to be a powerful influence in the evolution of Surrealist imagery.

Exhibition dates:

Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, B.C., May 28 to September 25, 2011

Dawn Ades is the foremost scholar of Surrealism, a curator of numerous international exhibitions and author of significant books on Dada, Surrealism, photomontage, women artists and art in Latin America; she is currently co-director of the Centre for the Study of Surrealism and its Legacies.

Dawn Ades' profile page

"Not only is the exhibition being billed as the most comprehensive survey of surrealism ever shown in the country, the Colour of My Dreams also explores how some of the leading lights in surrealism were influenced by the First Nations art of the Northwest Coast."""

Vancouver Sun