Surrealism

The mister and I try to use Thursdays as date days. Last Thursday we went to the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) for our date day. We'd been wanting to see the Surrealism exhibition since it opened back in June but didn't want to take lufflump as we thought it would bore him. I picked up a brochure recently and we made a proper date.

I'm not a big art person. I can appreciate a good piece of work but I don't know the technical side and cannot analyse a painting on colour or brushstrokes. If I like a piece of art it's not based on technique, it's more based on whether I find it interesting or not. I like weird dark art too and I thought surrealism would be interesting and up my alley. The mister likes and appreciates technique more than me which is one reason why he was interested.

The exhibition was split into years and what was popular in surrealism during those years. There were paintings, drawings, photos, sculptures, and movies. The early years (1920's) of surrealism bored me. I found it confusing and not overly appealing. It wasn't until the mid to late 1930's section that I saw some photos that today wouldn't be so spectacular thanks to photoshop but for back then that would have blown minds.

Not surprisingly, being the mythological lovers the mister and I are, we both loved the mythology part of the exhibition with brilliant paintings by André Masson. We were both disappointed this section wasn't larger. I fell in love with André Masson's 'Le Labyrinth'. Amazing. I'd love a copy for our house.

Le Labyrinth

They have free tour guides at certain times and we heard some of one tour. The lady didn't know much about the mythology section (I don't know art, saw the paintings for the first time that day and knew more than her) which I found irritating. I understand it was free but if you have a tour guide you'd want to walk away fascinated and knowing more than you did at the start. The people in the tour guide ended up going back to the start and going through again. To me, that defeats the purpose of being in a tour.

I'd definitely recommend this exhibition as it was interesting and out of the ordinary. If you like that kind of stuff anyway, it's not for everyone. It was $20 for an adult entry ticket so if you don't find it interesting spend your $20 a bit wiser. They do have a section for kid's so that may be a good school holiday option.

Do you like art and exhibitions?