William Klein
(French, born in the United States, 1928–2022)
Surrealist Group and André Breton, Paris, 1959
Object Details
Artist
William Klein
Date
ca. 1959
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 12 3/4 × 17 5/8 inches (32.4 × 44.7 cm)
Sheet: 16 × 19 7/8 inches (40.6 × 50.5 cm)
Mat: 20 × 24 inches (50.8 × 61 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Arthur Penn, Class of 1956, and Marilyn Penn
Object
Number
90.054.040
By the late 1950s, surrealism had already undergone an artistic revolution. Preceded by the superfic(…)
By the late 1950s, surrealism had already undergone an artistic revolution. Preceded by the superficial frivolousness and societal critique of Dada, surrealism was born as a literary movement merging internal psychological processes with real life. André Breton, the founding member of the surrealists and seated here at the head of the table, was inspired by Freud’s theory of the subconscious. In depicting the surrealists, William Klein created a surrealist image himself: smartly dressed Parisians around a dinner table where the only meal visibly available involves consuming the model of a human being. The visible trace of the camera’s flash in the upper left corner of the print grounds the work within the medium of photography and the unreal context of a fashion-celebrity editorial. (“15 Minutes: Exposing Dimensions of Fame,” curated by undergraduate members of Cornell’s History of Art Major’s Society and presented at the Johnson Museum April 16 – July 24, 2016)
