Surrealism Beyond Borders arrived on to Instagram feeds with a splash last week, sending several molten clocks flying and knocking the lobster landline off the wall.

Yet the Tate’s new exhibition aims to reposition the idea of Surrealist thought, expanding the collective consciousness to see the true global scope that birthed the movement. Featuring over 150 works, from paintings to sculpture, photography and films, the show explores the collective interests shared by artists across regions to highlight their interrelated networks. Surrealism has always been a vehicle for change, defying conservative social conventions, and the Tate is aiming to show the world that that’s more than just Magritte’s Time Transfixed (the iconic fireplace train). Among the works that are new to the UK are photographs by Cecilia Porras and Enrique Grau from 1950s Colombia, and paintings by the exiled Spanish artist Eugenio Granell, highlighting how the unique political contexts in which they lived and created influenced the works and by extension the movement.


Featuring over 150 works ranging from painting and photography to sculpture and film, many of which have never been shown in the UK, this exhibition explores the collective interests shared by artists across regions to highlight their interrelated networks. It also considers the conditions under which they worked and how this in turn impacted Surrealism, including the pursuit of independence from colonialism and displacement caused by international conflict. Among the rarely seen works are photographs by Cecilia Porras and Enrique Grau, which defied the conservative social conventions of 1950s Colombia, as well as paintings by exiled Spanish artist Eugenio Granell, whose radical political commitments made him a target for censorship and persecution.

Based on extensive research, this exhibition will reach across the world and span over 50 years, showing how generations of artists have been inspired and united by surrealism – from centres as diverse as Buenos Aires, Cairo, Lisbon, Mexico City, Prague, Seoul, and Tokyo.