The Curatorial Avant-Garde: Surrealism and Exhibition Practice in France, 1925–1941 par by Adam Jolles (review)

Jolles, Adam. The Curatorial Avant-Garde: Surrealism and Exhibition Practice in France, 1925–1941. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 2013. ISBN 978-0271 -06415-4. Pp. 270. $90. Through his refreshing look into the world of the museum according to the French Surrealists, Jolles delves into exciting new territory about the debates and the critical discourses of their exhibitions and works of art. These surrealist artists posed as curators and did not have any professional experience. They included the usual suspects such as André Breton and Louis Aragon, as well as lesser-known figures, who often showcased their art in strange and curious venues. Divided into five chapters, complete with many amusing anecdotes, Jolles’s book offers an interdisciplinary approach of the exhibitions and the Surrealists’ artistic and intellectual development in interwar Europe. The book explores the creative forces at work in terms of curatorial activity and the ways in which the French Surrealists upended, at times literally on its head, artistic practice and promotion of their works in the public sphere. Original in its content and insightful in its analysis, the book provides a thorough reading of the artistic practices of the Surrealists from their introduction in Paris in 1925. The impressive range of images including digital scans of paintings, sculptures, lithographs of the works which populated these exhibitions and of the exhibitions themselves (many currently housed in formal museum settings) are exquisitely rendered and complement Jolles’s detailed descriptions. The author provides crucial insight into the conflicting views Surrealist works should be made, displayed, and promoted. The chapter “Denouncing de Chirico” sheds new light on the public censuring of one of surrealism’s most formative figures while“Colonists by Vocation”tackles the daunting task of mounting an exhibition promoting precolonial ritual artifacts. In his fourth and fifth chapters, Jolles focuses on the representation of objects spanning the gamut from mundane, ordinary objects to surrealist objects, and how these objects could both commercialize surrealism and subvert commercialism. Overall, the book highlights the significance of the aesthetic experience and explains how visual media and language can effect change in new and innovative ways, an issue which remains critical to contemporary curatorial practices. The conclusion entitled “Looking Back on Adorno” redefines the limits of traditional artistic boundaries and suggests the challenges curators may face in the future, including the public museum as an institution and the superficiality versus market value of artworks. Finally, the extensive bibliography and endnotes provide a wealth of information for further study into the complex world of the French Surrealists. This book will certainly appeal to those readers with a keen interest in alternative curatorial practices as well as those who appreciate modernist art history and French culture. University of Toronto Catherine Gaughan 248 FRENCH REVIEW 89.2 ...