The first Surrealist exhibition took place in 1925.
Titled La Peinture surréaliste, the exhibition was held at Galerie Pierre in Paris. It marked an important transition: Surrealism had begun as a literary and philosophical project, but the show demonstrated that its ideas could also shape painting and visual art.
The exhibition included works by artists such as Joan Miró, Man Ray, André Masson and Paul Klee. Their paintings and experimental images explored automatism, dream imagery, unexpected juxtapositions and forms that seemed to emerge from the unconscious. Techniques associated with Dada, including photomontage, also influenced the visual language on display.
The date is sometimes confused with 1924, when André Breton published the first Manifesto of Surrealism and the movement’s Paris group became formally organized. The year 1926 is also significant: Galerie Surréaliste opened in Paris with an exhibition by Man Ray. Those milestones belong to the movement’s early history, but the first Surrealist exhibition itself was held in 1925.