Making History ― Surrealism and the Invention of a Political Culture

While it is common knowledge in Surrealist studies that the Surrealists appropriated historical figures such as Giuseppe Arcimboldo and the Marquis de Sade as "proto-Surrealist," the significance of this aspect of the Surrealist project has rarely been addressed. Theorizing Surrealism as a "political culture," Making History brings to light the politicized nature of history writing by examining the Surrealists' construction of an "anti-canon," one which would critique and expose the biases of the conventional Western canon, while simultaneously buttressing the Surrealists' attempt to create a coherent, yet subversive alternative sub-culture. Indeed Making History will suggest that the Surrealists performatively revealed that history can be not only a form of oppression, but a form of protest as well.

Kirsten Strom is an Assistant Professor of Art History at Grand Valley State University, where she teaches courses in modern and contemporary art and theory.