Experience the transformation of European Surrealism into a powerful tool for Black expression by modern and contemporary artists of the African and Caribbean diasporas.

In celebration of the centennial of André Breton's first Surrealist Manifesto, Surrealism and Us sheds new light on the consumption and transformation of Surrealism in the Caribbean and the United States. This catalogue showcases over 50 works, spanning from the 1940s to the present, that demonstrate how Caribbean and African diasporic artists have reclaimed and reimagined the European avant-garde movement for their own purposes. From its inception, Surrealism, along with other European art movements, embraced and adapted traditional African art, poetry, and music. Simultaneously, artists in the Americas developed subsets of Surrealism that were deeply rooted in African diasporic culture. For example, Aimé and Suzanne Césaire in Martinique proposed a Caribbean Surrealism that defied principles of order and reason and embraced spiritualities from the African continent. In the United States, artists like Romare Bearden and Ted Joans also explored Surrealist concepts in their work.

Artists include: Firelei Báez, Agustin Cárdenas, Myrlande Constant, Rafael Ferrer, Ja’Tovia Gary, Hector Hyppolite, Ted Joans, Wifredo Lam, Simone Leigh, Kerry James Marshall.