Kabinettstücke: Traum und Wirklichkeit

06/04-09/07/2023

Surrealism is an artistic tradition, which found its theoretical and philosophical roots in the Manifest of Surrealism, which was published by the French writer André Breton in 1924. Inspired by the idea of Sigmund Freud that the unconscious was the well of creativity and that by researching our hopes and dreams we will find our true self, the Surrealists looked at the irrational and unconscious through the technique of automatic writing (Écriture automatique) under the use of Collages and the coincidence.

The German painter and designer Willi Baumeister (1889-1955) had an complex relationship with Surrealism. He was not a member of the surrealists movement but he had an interest in the groups ideas and techniques. In Baumeisters work we find elements of Surrealism. For example paintings reminiscent of dreams and abstract forms. But at the same time Baumeister remained independent from the movement and developed his own unique style of abstract painting.