08. Surrealism

1925 - 1937

Music Selection:  Milhaud: Creation du Monde

In 1925 Picasso exhibited his Cubist works at the first Surrealist group show. The Surrealists refuted rationality, placing their faith instead in chance, desire, coincidence, and dreams. Picasso, though he didn’t consider himself a Surrealist, was influenced by the Surrealists’ interest in the unconscious and the concept of painting serving as an expression of his unconscious like a dream. His work of this period shows his revived interest in primitivism, eroticism, and use of pattern and vibrant colors throughout the compositions.

This period also roughly coincides with Picasso’s relationship with Marie-Thérèse Walter, the mother of their daughter, Maya. Picasso commented “I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them”, which aptly and succinctly encapsulates his brush with Surrealism.