What was the first major Surrealist group exhibition, held in Paris in 1925?

The first major Surrealist group exhibition, held in Paris in 1925, was La Peinture surréaliste.

The exhibition took place at the Galerie Pierre in Paris and presented works by artists associated with the newly organized movement. Its title translates into English as “Surrealist Painting,” making it an important early public statement that Surrealism was not only a literary idea but also a visual-art movement.

The show appeared soon after André Breton’s 1924 manifesto and helped establish a shared artistic identity. Participants included figures such as Man Ray, Paul Klee, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, and Max Ernst, although the movement’s membership and boundaries were never completely fixed.

It is easy to confuse this exhibition with the 1938 Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme in Paris, a later and more elaborate event associated with Marcel Duchamp and Salvador Dalí. The 1925 exhibition is the earlier milestone and is commonly identified by its French title, La Peinture surréaliste.