"Surrealism: The Poetry of Dreams" or my first visit at GOMA

It's been a year and a bit since I kept these thoughts bottled up, so it's time sharing them. They come from the experience of visiting a temporary exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane (http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/ ).
This post is in its honesty more of an attempt of learning, re -memorising the event and exhibition in itself... and the need of sharing this process of learning, with the hope of having your thoughts resting too for a bit... on the wings of surreal art.
The exhibition has been one of the highlights of my trip there in the summer of 2011, something I have expected with genuine emotion, as I was aware of the Surrealist works which the Pompidou Centre (http://www.centrepompidou.fr/ ) was going to bring to the Antipodes for some months. Something which was again a bit surreal: I was embarking on this trip, coming from Europe myself and finally see these works which travelled themselves....and producing amazement when buying the ticket at the gallery in the moment of answering the compulsory question ''where are you from?'' (they seemed to keep a track of that, a statistic on the visitors within Australian states)... ''I'm from Europe'' produced a surreal look...
I digress, time to enter in the gallery of memories about the exhibition "Surrealism: The Poetry of Dreams"...

The sensation of trembling accompanied me as a good mate, a mate that got over-excited when being welcomed by works of Max Ernst, Eli Lotar (Tudor Arghezi's son, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Lotar), André Masson ( http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=3821 ) and Andre Bréton's Manifesto, in original...a sort of birth-certificate and an expression of the authenticity of the surrealist beliefs (http://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T340/SurManifesto/ManifestoOfSurrealism.htm , http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=768). 
The trembling went on a different path once familiarity took its place once I saw on the wall a group picture with the artisans of the Dada movement ( happily recognising Tristan Tzara at first glance), and peace, installed at arriving in the room where there was wall projected ''Un Chien Andalou'' (the product of the fruitful collaboration between Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali).

I've been fortunate enough to keep the notes I made at the place, and  I'll enumerate here some of the works which interested me most, some newly discovered, some warming me with knowing a bit of their history. From this chaos of impressions and notes, arise artists and some of their works. I've provided links to each, so that the learning is as vast as possible, although the richness of it it's hard to be taken in a single reading and/or browsing of these artist's masterpieces) : 

• Max Ernst's Chimera (here's a wonderful account on the artist's activity and a generous part of his works: http://www.artgalleryabc.com/ernst/blog ) . The Last Forest worths shown here: http://20buckspin.tumblr.com/post/2622338974/max-ernst-the-last-forest-1969
• Yves Tanguy  ( http://www.yvestanguy.org/en/ ).
• René Magritte:  Les marches d'éte ,Le ciel meurtrier , Souvenir de voyage, Le model rouge....these I've seen, but here one can learn more about: http://www.rene-magritte.org/
• Joan Miro, although I've remained with his Silence'in marked in memory....here's more:http://joanmiro.com/
• Joseph Sima http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Sima 
• Salvador Dali: ''Halucination partielle'' has been the first painting of his I've ever been close to. The rest..is a 15 years love I had for Dali's art. Possibly needless, but still.... http://www.salvador-dali.org/en_index.html
• Dora Maar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dora_Maar
• Victor Brauner ,Héron d'Alexandre, Le ver luisant..... and more:  http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/bio/?artist_name=Victor%20Brauner
• Picasso -Femme couchée..... http://www.artnet.com/artists/pablo-picasso/figure-couch%C3 %A9e-rLNm2u5TGecJBTr4bN62Ig2
• André Masson -Le labyrinthe......... http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=82217
• Jackson Pollock..here a lovely site where you can recreate in his painting manner: http://www.jacksonpollock.org/ and a web collection: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/
• Arshville Gorki: http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=2252
• Marcel Jean – Les gardiens du sommeil... http://www.galleryofsurrealism.com/mjma-1935ab.htm
• Dorothea Tanning- A very happy picture... http://www.dorotheatanning.org/life-and-work/view-work/work-242/
•  I've learnt for the first time about the ''informal tachisme'':  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachisme
• Simon Hantai: http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/fyfe/fyfe4-16-10.asp
• Judith Riegl: http://www.judit-reigl.com/

Listing proved the most efficient way of delivering the main points of the exhibition, and even without imparting too much of my personal impressions I still hope that my personal effort brings a little attention on these manifestations...anti-art.
Until next post...enjoy life, love Art, learn!