A lively history of Surrealism, from its beginnings in Paris to its expansion into an international artistic movement
 
Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100 celebrates the centennial of André Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism (1924), which launched one of the essential currents of twentieth-century thought and culture. Matthew Affron investigates how artists made good on Surrealism’s promise of a revolution in consciousness by means of the unbridled imagination. This book highlights the key motivations, principles, themes, and techniques of Surrealist art from the early 1920s to the late 1960s. It also underscores Surrealism’s spread beyond its birthplace in Paris, with a focus on the migration of artists to hubs in North America—especially New York City and Mexico City—during the Second World War. This lively, richly illustrated publication features works in a wide range of media by a diverse group of artists, including Jean Arp, Leonora Carrington, Joseph Cornell, Max Ernst, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Wifredo Lam, Man Ray, André Masson, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Dorothea Tanning, Remedios Varo, and many others.
 
Distributed for the Philadelphia Museum of Art
 
Exhibition Schedule:
 
Philadelphia Museum of Art
(November 8, 2025–February 16, 2026)

“Makes both the often wild multiplicity of Surrealism comprehensible—even coherent—and the grand spectacle of Surrealism exhilarating.”—Jonathan Fineberg, Brooklyn Rail

Longlisted in Publishers Weekly’s Fall 2025 Preview

Matthew Affron is the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.