At the 1937 Paris International Exposition, Picasso’s Guernica was unveiled at the Spanish Pavilion, exemplifying how avant-garde art (including Surrealist-adjacent circles) engaged the Spanish Civil War and escalating European political crisis—an immediate backdrop to Surrealism’s major 1938 Paris exhibition.
The Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme opened at the Galerie des Beaux-Arts (Georges Wildenstein), 140 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris. Organized chiefly by André Breton and Paul Éluard, it aimed to present Surrealism as an immersive experience rather than a conventional art display.
In the exhibition’s central space, Marcel Duchamp and Wolfgang Paalen created a grotto-like environment, including the famous ceiling of 1,200 coal sacks (filled with newspapers) that inverted expectations of an “art salon” and reinforced the show’s anti-gallery, atmospheric ambitions.
Visitors encountered Salvador Dalí’s Taxi pluvieux (Rainy Taxi) as a key threshold work, signaling the exhibition’s emphasis on staged encounters, sensation, and the blurring of everyday objects with dreamlike scenarios.
The exhibition’s lighting design—associated with Man Ray—contributed to an unusually dark viewing environment; at the opening, visitors reportedly used flashlights to navigate, reinforcing Surrealism’s strategy of disorientation and active participation.
A corridor-like section presented a sequence of mannequins altered by participating artists, turning the exhibition into a collaborative mise-en-scène. This “street” of figures emphasized Surrealism’s interest in the uncanny body and the constructed nature of modern desire.
The Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme ended its Paris run, having demonstrated a landmark model of the total, immersive exhibition—a curatorial approach that influenced later avant-garde installation and exhibition practices.
André Breton publicly announced Salvador Dalí’s expulsion from the Surrealist group in the magazine Minotaure (May issue), illustrating intensifying political and ethical disputes within Surrealism on the eve of World War II.
In the early months of World War II, Wolfgang Paalen and César Moro organized an International Surrealist Exhibition in Mexico City’s Galería de Arte Mexicano (Inés Amor), showing how Surrealism’s center of gravity began shifting beyond Paris as artists dispersed.
After leaving France, André Breton arrived in New York in 1941, part of a broader wartime relocation that helped reposition Surrealism within transatlantic networks and American art worlds.
The magazine VVV began publication in New York, edited by David Hare with the participation of André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, and Max Ernst. It became a key platform for Surrealism in exile and for dialogue with younger American artists.
First Papers of Surrealism opened at the Whitelaw Reid Mansion (451 Madison Avenue), organized by Breton and Duchamp as a benefit for French war relief. Duchamp’s string installation and the show’s broad roster signaled Surrealism’s reconfiguration in the United States during wartime.
Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme (Paris, 1938) and Its Context (1937–1941)
