Networks of Surrealism

One hundred years after the »First Surrealist Manifesto« (1924), the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin is presenting an exhibition that offers new insights into the internationally ramified art movement. The focus is on the biographies of the works, but also on the lives of renowned artists, dealers, and collectors. The circle of Surrealists was characterized by complex friendships, love affairs, and business relationships, so that works of art often changed hands informally. In some cases, the works changed hands informally in the 1930s and 1940s. The circle of Surrealists was characterized by complex friendships, love affairs, and business relationships, so that works of art often changed hands informally. In some cases, influenced by the Second World War, the works traveled long distances through European cities or as far as the USA or Mexico in the 1930s and 1940s. The exhibition illustrates how both historical circumstances and personal relationships and networks contributed to the spread of the international movement. Max Ernst to Dorothea Tanning. Networks of Surrealism. Provenances from the Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch Collection can be seen in Berlin from October 17, 2025, to March 1, 2026.

In 2010, Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch donated their collection to the state of Berlin, which has since been on permanent loan to the Neue Nationalgalerie. In addition to surrealism, the focus is on New York abstract expressionism. Artists represented in the exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie include Leonora Carrington, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Leonor Fini, René Magritte, Joan Miró, and Dorothea Tanning.

Since January 2023, the provenance of approximately 100 works of art in the Pietzsch Collection that were created before 1945 has been investigated in order to exclude works that were confiscated from Jewish owners. The current exhibition presents the results of the investigation to date.