ANDRÉ KERTÉSZ AND FREDERICK SOMMER AT BOWDOIN COLLEGE OF ART Under the Surface: Surrealist Photography

The primary goal of the surrealist movement was to liberate the modern mind by demonstrating how deep psychological impulses could be explored, depicted, and fused with everyday reality. Despite the perception that photography presented the most direct depiction of surface reality, or perhaps because of it, the medium presented an ideal arena for surrealist artists to explode the traditional bounds of visual representation in ways that continue to influence artists today. Surrealists experimented with unprecedented technical manipulations, both before the camera and in the darkroom, turning the so-called realist medium of photography into a vehicle for depicting the fantastical. Even their most “straightforward” images make the familiar strange and reveal the psychological depths that underlie surface reality. It is this constant tension between surface and depth that gives surrealist photography its distinctive impact, which this exhibition will demonstrate with highlights from the Bowdoin College Museum of Art’s rich collection of surrealist photography, supplemented with prestigious loans from public and private collections.