Ten years after the publication of the first Surrealist manifesto by André Breton, the Surrealist Group in Czechoslovakia was founded on 21 March 1934. This quickly became the second most prestigious group of its kind after the Paris group, and soon afterwards, at the beginning of 1935, the Mánes Association of Fine Artists organised the first exhibition of the Surrealist Group in Czechoslovakia. Thanks to this exhibition André Breton himself came to visit Prague, where the first ever International Bulletin of Surrealism was subsequently published. Since that time, despite various historical reversals, the friendship between the Prague and Paris groups has endured, with the Prague group continuing in its activities also following the death of André Breton in 1966 and indeed up to the present day.
The book and exhibition shall present this continuity of Czech Surrealism, which is exceptional on an international scale, and will focus on the intergenerational dialogues in the output of the individual artists.
At the same time it will highlight the uniqueness of the Czech group, since the fact that a large proportion of its activities were conducted illegally led to constant rumination on the fundamental tenets of Surrealism, their re-evaluation, and the raising of new questions. In the concluding section, the exhibition will show how the Surrealist Group in the Czech Republic remains active.
