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A surrealist vision of the art museum: conventions of display in the "Witnesses" room at the Menil Collection

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The display methods of the gallery, "Witnesses to a Surrealist Vision," makes the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, unique among modern art institutions in the United States. It is also an anomaly within the Menil Collection itself. The "Witnesses" room is located near the back of the wing that houses…

The display methods of the gallery, "Witnesses to a Surrealist Vision," makes the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, unique among modern art institutions in the United States. It is also an anomaly within the Menil Collection itself. The "Witnesses" room is located near the back of the wing that houses the museum's large Surrealism collection. Both objects that the Surrealists owned and objects similar to those they collected are showcased in the gallery by means of an array of eclectically displayed ethnographic objects and other curiosities. Curated by anthropologist Edmund Carpenter, this single-room exhibition seems to recreate a surrealist collection. "Witnesses" is a permanent exhibition within the Menil's Surrealism collection and not an independent wing or gallery. All of the objects contained in "Witnesses" belonged either to the curator Edmund Carpenter or to the de Menils, whose larger collection of ethnographic objects are displayed in separate African, Oceanic, and Pacific Northwest Coast galleries within the museum. The Surrealists often utilized a heterogeneous style of both collecting and display, which the de Menils also took up. They mixed surrealist art freely with ethnographic and other types of found objects. This style of collecting and display contrasts sharply with the modern display methods that are standard to American art museums, and which are dictated by a hierarchy based on the cultural provenance of each object as high art. This thesis examines Carpenter's "Witnesses" exhibition in the Menil Collection to establish its display as a legacy of surrealist collecting--a close connection which is not seen in the permanent collections of any other art museum in the United States. Thus, by noting and annotating the Surrealists' collecting and display methods that can be located in Carpenter's installation of "Witnesses," I argue that Carpenter challenges many of the formal qualities typical of museum institutional practices and radically expands its very definition of what constitutes art, even in our own time.

ContributorsStrange, Kristen (Author) / Mesch, Ulrike (Thesis advisor) / Swensen, Thomas (Committee member) / Toon, Richard (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2014

The Journal of Surrealism and the Americas: Vol. 10 No. 1 (2019)

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The Journal of Surrealism and the Americas: Vol. 10 No. 1 (2019) - Table of Contents

“Introduction to the Special Issue on Max Ernst” by Samantha Kavky, p. 1-6.

“Napoleon in the Wilderness: The Transmogrification of a Picture by Max Ernst” by Martin Schieder, p. 7-23.

“Seeing Through an (American) Temperament: Max Ernst’s…

The Journal of Surrealism and the Americas: Vol. 10 No. 1 (2019) - Table of Contents

“Introduction to the Special Issue on Max Ernst” by Samantha Kavky, p. 1-6.

“Napoleon in the Wilderness: The Transmogrification of a Picture by Max Ernst” by Martin Schieder, p. 7-23.

“Seeing Through an (American) Temperament: Max Ernst’s Microbes, 1946-1953” by Danielle M. Johnson, p. 24-45.

“Max Ernst and the Aesthetic of Commercial Tourism: Max Among Some of His Favorite Dolls” by Carolyn Butler Palmer, p, 46-68.

“Arizona Dream: Maxime Rossi Meets Max Ernst” by Julia Drost, p. 69-83.

“Glowing Like Phosphorus: Dorothea Tanning and the Sedona Western” by Catriona McAra, p. 84-105.

“Conference Review: ‘SURREALISMS: the Inaugural Conference of the International Society for the Study of Surrealism’” by Kristen Strange, p. 106-110.

“Exhibition Review of ‘A Home for Surrealism: Fantastic Painting in Midcentury Chicago’” by Jennifer R. Cohen, p. 111-114.

“Exhibition Review: ‘Native American Art at Documenta 14 and the Issue of Democracy’” by Claudia Mesch, p. 115-120.

ContributorsKavky, Samantha (Author) / Schieder, Martin (Author) / Johnson, Danielle M. (Author) / Palmer, Carolyn Butler (Author) / Drost, Julia, 1969- (Author) / McAra, Catriona (Author) / Strange, Kristen (Author) / Cohen, Jennifer R. (Author) / Mesch, Claudia (Author)

Created2019

The Journal of Surrealism and the Americas: Vol. 7 No. 1 (2013)

Description

The Journal of Surrealism and the Americas: Vol. 7 No. 1 (2013) - Table of Contents

“Introduction to the Issue and Special Section on Native American Surrealisms” by Claudia Mesch, p. i-iv.

“George Morrison’s Surrealism” by W. Jackson Rushing III, p. 1-18.

“César Moro’s Transnational Surrealism” by Michele Greet, p. 19-51.

“A Modernist Moment:…

The Journal of Surrealism and the Americas: Vol. 7 No. 1 (2013) - Table of Contents

“Introduction to the Issue and Special Section on Native American Surrealisms” by Claudia Mesch, p. i-iv.

“George Morrison’s Surrealism” by W. Jackson Rushing III, p. 1-18.

“César Moro’s Transnational Surrealism” by Michele Greet, p. 19-51.

“A Modernist Moment: Native Art and Surrealism at the University of Oklahoma” by Mark A. White, p. 52-70.

“The Opposite of Snake: Surrealism and the Art of Jimmie Durham” by Mary Modeen, p. 71-95.

“‘My World is Surreal,’ or ‘The Northwest Coast’ is Surreal” by Charlotte Townsend-Gault, p. 96-107.

“Complexity and Contradiction in Native American Surrealism” by Robert Silberman, p. 108-130.

“Review of ‘Double Solitaire: The Surreal Worlds of Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy’ & Kay Sage, ‘The Biographical Chronology and Four Surrealist One Act Plays’” by Larry List, p. 131-134.

ContributorsMesch, Claudia (Author) / Rushing III, W. Jackson (Author) / Greet, Michele M. (Author) / White, Mark A. (Author) / Modeen, Mary (Author) / Townsend-Gault, Charlotte (Author) / Silberman, Robert (Author) / List, Larry (Author)

Created2013

The Journal of Surrealism and the Americas: Vol. 11 No. 1 (2020)

Description

“Fantasyland or Wackyland? Animation and Surrealism in 1930s America” by Jorgelina Orfila and Francisco Ortega Grimaldo, p. 1-19.

“El único punto de resistencia: Cultural, Linguistic and Medial Transgressions in the Surrealist Journal VVV” by Andrea Gremels, p. 20-41.

“Chicago Surrealism, Herbert Marcuse, and the Affirmation of the ‘Present and Future Viability of…

“Fantasyland or Wackyland? Animation and Surrealism in 1930s America” by Jorgelina Orfila and Francisco Ortega Grimaldo, p. 1-19.

“El único punto de resistencia: Cultural, Linguistic and Medial Transgressions in the Surrealist Journal VVV” by Andrea Gremels, p. 20-41.

“Chicago Surrealism, Herbert Marcuse, and the Affirmation of the ‘Present and Future Viability of Surrealism’” by Abigail Susik, p. 42-62.

“Surrealist Associations and Mexico’s Precariat in Roberto Wong’s París D.F.” by Kevin M. Anzzolin, p. 63-80.

“Book Review: New Books on Dorothea Tanning” by Katharine Conley, p. 81-83.

“Exhibition Review: ‘Photography and the Surreal Imagination’” by Sandra Zalman, p. 84-89.

“Exhibition Review: ‘Monsters and Myths: Surrealism and War in the 1930s and 1940s’” by Jonathan S. Wallis, p. 86-93

ContributorsOrfila, Jorgelina (Author) / Ortega Grimaldo, Francisco (Author) / Gremels, Andrea (Author) / Susik, Abigail (Author) / Anzzolin, Kevin M. (Author) / Conley, Katharine (Author) / Zalman, Sandra (Author) / Wallis, Jonathan S. (Author)

Created2020