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The Arts Intel Report

Forbidden Territories: 100 Years of Surreal Landscapes

Wael Shawky, The Gulf Project Camp: Sculpture # 1, 2019.

Until Apr 21, 2025
Gallery Walk, Wakefield WF1 5AW, United Kingdom

Landscapes played an important part in the lexicon of Surrealism. In particular, terrains that leaned into emptiness—a cliff, a desert, an unpopulated plaza—best reflected the perilous, heated, and isolating unknowns of the unconscious. “Art is the revelation of nature’s darkest secrets,” Max Ernst said, “those that remain hidden beneath the everyday appearance.” To celebrate 100 years since October 15, 1924, when André Breton published the Surrealist Manifesto, this show focuses on the movement’s landscapes—disturbingly familiar places created by modern artists such as Lee Miller, Salvador Dalí, and Leonora Carrington, as well as contemporary artists like Nicolas Party and Stefanie Heinze. —Elena Clavarino

Photo: © Wael Shawky. Courtesy Lisson Gallery