‘A moment of real creative synergy’: the enduring legacy of Surrealism in Mexico

In 1924, André Breton published his Manifeste du surréalisme, a text that announced the birth of an artistic movement known as Surrealism. The aim, wrote Breton, was ‘to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality.’ In this pursuit, Surrealists explored the unconscious mind, dreams and irrational thought, offering insight into real life through the imagined.

With the advent of World War II, many European artists, including Surrealists, sought refuge across the Atlantic. Some settled in New York, while others made their way to Mexico. In Mexico, émigrés mingled with local artists, leading the movement to broaden and diversify. ‘It was this creative melting pot that led to some of their best works,’ explains Diana Bramham, Specialist in Latin American Art at Christie’s. ‘The country became a catalyst for their creativity.’

Offered in Latin American Art on 2 October at Christie’s in New York, paintings and sculptures by masters of Mexican Surrealism including Leonora Carrington, Bridget Tichenor and Gunther Gerzso showcase the layered visual potency of a movement now in its 100th year.

Pan-cultural visual language

Mexico’s striking landscapes and rich cultural history captivated Surrealist artists. Indeed, it was after his first trip to the country in 1938 that Breton hailed Mexico as ‘the Surrealist place par excellence’.

The country’s blend of pre-Hispanic mysticism and colonial influence offered a unique backdrop. Artists like Leonora Carrington drew on the confluence of cultures in her own work. She fused her personal experience of Catholicism with the mythology and religious practices of her adopted country, creating her own pan-cultural visual language.

In Faet Fiada (The Appearance of a Wild Beast) (1951), Carrington reimagines a tale from Irish mythology, mining her own Celtic heritage. The painting depicts Saint Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland, and his acolytes alongside a small, fairylike figure. Animals are scattered throughout the background, while the moon casts a glow from above. Rendered in a luminous emerald green, it shows off the jewel tones Carrington became known for.

Carrington continued to explore the themes of magic and mythology over her eight-decade career. In Bird Seizes Jewel (1969), she paints a well-known mythological story in which a bird steals a jewel and an innocent is charged with the crime.

Here, Carrington’s cross-cultural preoccupations merge with her surreal and anthropomorphic beings: a snake and a donkey drink tea while a snail with a human head looms over the scene. ‘Much of Carrington’s work is not a depiction of a Mexican story, but it ties to mythology that was prevalent in Mexico,’ says Bramham. ‘She brought folklore from Europe and created her own vernacular.’

Women of the movement

In Mexico, women artists like Carrington were drivers of Surrealism’s evolution, and her circle included other prominent figures such as Remedios Varo, Frida Kahlo and Bridget Tichenor.

‘There was a real support network for these female artists at the time,’ says Bramham. ‘That was due in large part to Inés Amor.’ Amor, the legendary director of the Galería de Arte Mexicano, promoted a cohort of female artists who are today considered the front-runners of the Mexican avant-garde such as María Izquierdo, Frida Kahlo and Remedios Varo. In 1956, she became Carrington’s primary dealer and is the subject of one of the few portraits Carrington made.

Pensador (also titled Un petit déjeuner (Portrait of Inés Amor)) (1962) portrays Amor seated at a table, probing a heart with a fork. Cats and wild beasts float in the background while the head of a gorilla sits atop the table, framed by a harvest wreath. The painting highlights the blend of real and imagined components that characterise Carrington’s oeuvre while paying homage to a key figure of modern Mexican art.

Bridget Tichenor’s paintings also combined anthropomorphic beings with a mix of the real and surreal. Like Carrington, she came to Mexico from Europe and was equally drawn to mythology and mysticism.

In Misioneros (1965), Tichenor paints a striking central figure that conjures ideas of magical realms. The figure is surrounded by white faces, some floating in water, others atop the bodies of animals. These faces appear throughout many of her works and are thought to be self-portraits of the artist.

‘Tichenor’s work is not often seen at market,’ says Bramham, ‘and it’s especially unusual to have one of this quality.’ With its rich colours and intricate details, Misioneros captures the ethos of Tichenor’s oeuvre and highlights her unique ability to transport the viewer to another world.

Surrealist abstraction

Surrealism continued to bleed into the Mexican creative community, finding a completely different expression in the work of Gunther Gerzso. Born in Mexico to a Hungarian father and German mother, he nonetheless lived his young adult life in Europe. Like his contemporaries Carrington and Tichenor, he later found his permanent home in Mexico amidst the conflict of the Second World War.

Mexico’s rich precolonial cultural history proved galvanizing for Gerzso. With his extensive travels across Mexico, he gained intimate knowledge of Aztec and Mayan architecture, which he translated into his own distinct expression of Surrealism.

Verde-azul-blanco-rojo (1975) exemplifies Gerzso’s ability to subtly conjure the idea of precolonial architecture within a predominantly abstract composition. The painting’s bold, vibrant colour palette and juxtaposition of warm and cool tones exemplifies the sense of dynamism he was able to capture throughout his oeuvre.

‘Gerzso was painting in this very distinct style at the same time that these key women were working through Surrealism,’ says Bramham. ‘They all knew one another and had deep artistic relationships that were rooted in their shared preoccupations. It was this moment of real creative synergy.’

The impact of Mexican Surrealism endures throughout the art world today. Through an inspired blend of local cultural heritage and global artistic movements, these Surrealist artists showcased the rich diversity of the Mexican avant-garde scene. Together, they transformed the movement, pushing Surrealism beyond what anyone had imagined.