Royal Museums of Fine Arts celebrate 100 years of surrealism with exhibition

On 21 February 2024, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (RMFAB) will open the touring exhibition "Imagine!". The exhibition, curated in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou in Paris, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Surrealism.

The exhibition will take visitors on a journey through the history of the 20th-century art movement and will feature famous names such as Max Ernst, Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dalí, Dorothea Tanning and Joan Miró. The museum describes it as "an immersion in Surrealism through the themes of dreams, the labyrinth, metamorphosis, the unknown and the subconscious",

For the exhibition, the RMFAB is collaborating with several international museums, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Fundación Mapfré in Madrid and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

130 works of art

Each of the partner museums will host the core of the travelling exhibition, focusing on its own heritage. In Brussels, the MRBAB will show over 130 works of art (paintings, works on paper, but also sculptures, objects, assemblages and photographs).

"Because of the importance of this movement for Belgium and its significance in a European context, where Belgium is preparing to preside over the Council of the EU, 2024 seems an appropriate year to put Surrealism in the spotlight," the institution explained.

After the exhibition ends in Brussels, it will move on to Paris, Hamburg, Madrid and Philadelphia.

^{The Old Masters Museum, part of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. © BELGA PHOTO POOL DIANA LE LARDIC}