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Dream and Nightmare

Surrealism experimented with different formulas within portraiture in an attempt to bring to light those impulses and desires within the human being that society had repressed. Through various works by Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Giorgio de Chirico and Frida Kahlo this section looks at portraits charged with symbolism and metaphor.

At the same time, for other artists Surrealism’s dream-world was not an effective vehicle to avoid the growing Fascist nightmare of these years. The first part of the exhibition thus closes with self-portraits by Käthe Kollwitz and Felix Nussbaum; works whose drama and sadness reflect a disillusionment that was gradually turning into terror, while summarising the experience of an entire generation.