Exhibition
Dreamworld
Surrealism at 100
The Secret Double (detail), 1927, by René Magritte (Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris) © 2025 C. Herscovici / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
When
Through February 16
Where
Main Building, Dorrance Galleries
About
In his Manifesto of Surrealism of 1924, André Breton celebrated the unbridled imagination as the key to freedom in all aspects of life. Artists responded by inventing a wide variety of new expressive forms designed to stir up the human capacity for wonder and amazement. Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100 will feature approximately two hundred works by more than seventy artists associated with the international Surrealist movement.
The Philadelphia Art Museum will be the only U.S. venue for this traveling exhibition, following distinct iterations at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which launched this project to celebrate Surrealism’s centenary, and three other European museums. Philadelphia Art Museum highlights will include Joan Miró’s Dog Barking at the Moon (1926), Salvador DalĂ’s Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) (1936), and Dorothea Tanning’s Birthday (1942).
Curators
Matthew Affron, Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art, with Danielle Cooke, Exhibition Assistant.
Supporters
Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100 is organized by the Philadelphia Art Museum, with the special contribution of the Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100 is part of an  international celebration of Surrealism, initiated by the Centre Pompidou to mark the centenary of the publication of the Surrealist Manifesto. The exhibition has been reinterpreted at the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, February 21–July 21, 2024; at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, September 4, 2024–January 13, 2025; at the Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid, February 4–May 11, 2025; at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, June 12–October 12, 2025; and at the Philadelphia Art Museum, Philadelphia, November 8, 2025–February 16, 2026.
Support:
Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100 is made possible by the Annenberg Foundation Fund for Major Exhibitions, the Robert Montgomery Scott Endowment for Exhibitions, the Kathleen C. and John J. F. Sherrerd Fund for Exhibitions, the Lois G. and Julian A. Brodsky Installation and Exhibition Fund, the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Fund for Exhibitions, The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, Audrey Escoll, Mr. and Mrs. Orlando C. Esposito, James and Susan Pagliaro, Barbara A. Podell and Mark G. Singer, and Andrew S. Teufel.
Sponsored by:
All exhibitions at the Philadelphia Art Museum are underwritten by the Annual Exhibition Fund. Generous support is provided by Andrea Baldeck, M.D.; Julia and David Fleischner; Mrs. Henry F. Harris; Robert Hayes; and Mark W. Strong and Dana Strong.
On View
The Pleasures of Dagobert, 1945, by Leonora Carrington (British, 1917–2011). Courtesy of the collection of Eduardo F. Costantini.
Aphrodisiac Telephone, 1938, Salvador Dalà (Spanish, 1904–1989). Lent by the Minneapolis Institute of Art, The William Hood Dunwoody Fund.
The Exact Time II, 1940, Wolfgang Paalen (Austrian, 1905–1959). Courtesy of Mark Kelman, New York.
Curator's Talk: Surrealism at 100
Exhibition curator Matthew Affron talks Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100 in the The Irma and Herbert Barness Endowed Lecture.