2 Mar 2020

Famous surrealist artworks to be displayed at Te Papa

From Morning Report, 8:54 am on 2 March 2020

A collection of rare, surrealist artworks are coming to Te Papa Tongarewa - all of which have never before been displayed in New Zealand.

Dalí and the Surrealists: Masterpieces from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, will open on 5 December this year and run until 26 April 2021, in the Toi Art Gallery.

It will feature 180 works including paintings, design, photography and film, from major artists such as Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, René Magritte and Marcel Duchamp.

Te Papa Tongarewa's head of art, Charlotte Davy, says the last surrealist exhibition was in 1974.

She spoke to RNZ reporter, Michael Cropp, who begins by asking: what is surrealism?