SURREAL SURROUNDINGS
KÖNIG MEXICO CITY’s inaugural exhibition, SURREAL SURROUNDINGS, is dedicated to the Surrealist heritage of Mexico, a country that had a lasting influence on Surrealism and, by extension, modern art, and builds on this tradition with its continued relevance for contemporary artists today.
February 6 – March 4, 2024
The spiritual power of Mexico – its nature, along with its volcanos and rich Aztec History – attracted European Surrealists like Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, José and Kati Horna, Gordon Onslow-Ford, Esteban Francés, Wolfgang Paalen, and Alice Rahon, who followed in the footsteps of Surrealism’s founding figure, André Breton. In Mexico, these European émigrés mingled with local artists like Frida Kahlo, Lola Álvarez Bravo, and Gunther Gerzso, who were already incorporating dreamlike imagery into their canvases.
A highlight of the opening will be a live painting performance by the Japanese artist, Ayako Rokkaku, one of KÖNIG GALERIE’s leading painters, whose painting performances take place over a few days, inviting visitors to the gallery to witness live the realization of a single work.
The Surrealists held to the belief that one could express the truest mechanisms of thought via the unconscious. Initially, the most important aspect of the unconscious mind was desire, which they felt was central to humanity: the authentic voice of the inner self and the key to understanding human nature. Dreams, childhood, madness, non-Western art, and chance operations became central to discovering the irrational in the art of the Surrealists.
In Breton’s 1924 foundational text for the movement, “Surrealist Manifesto," the French poet called for a new kind of art and literature powered by unconscious feelings and dreams, realms refreshingly far removed from the harrowing realities of World War I and its aftermath – astonishing parallels to the realities of our present. Given these important historical connections, SURREAL SURROUNDINGS brings together artists from around the world to pay tribute to Mexico’s Surrealist legacy and unique contemporary art scene.
The mystical and esoteric aspects of spirituality were of special interest to a group of female Surrealists whose work blossomed in Mexico under the autonomy they enjoyed in their new home. Varo, Carrington, and Horna became something of a trio in 1940s Mexico City; they all made work inspired by pre-Columbian mythology, tarot, alchemy, astrology, and the occult. Diego Rivera made Paris his temporary home between 1909 and 1921, where the celebrated muralist amassed an impressive collection of Aztec artifacts, which he consistently incorporated into his work. Rivera and his friend’s enthusiasm for pre-Columbian art reflected the turn-of-the-century Mexicanidad movement, which saw Mexican artists celebrating their indigenous roots in a rejection of colonial influence.
KÖNIG MEXICO CITY celebrates its arrival by honoring the transatlantic exchange of art and artists that this vital metropolitan hub has played host to over the last century of cutting-edge artistic practice and continues to do so today. SURREAL SURROUNDINGS pays tribute to the important points of confluence and contact that converged in the Mexican capital while also gesturing to the city’s continued relevance for contemporary art in the ever-changing present.