Mattress Vancouver

The Vancouver Art Gallery is currently hosting “The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art.” The exhibition began in May and will run until September 25th. Simmons Mattress Gallery encourages you to inspire your own dreams by witnessing the amazing works on display at the VAG.

Surrealism was a reaction to Sigmund Freud’s investigation into the meaning of dreams. André Breton wrote the manifesto of the movement in 1924 and encouraged artists to create works that focused on the unconscious mind over perceived reality.

Part of the exhibition highlights the connection between Pacific Northwest First Nations art and the Surrealist movement. Apparently, many of the contributing artists looked to First Nations art for inspiration.

Kwakwaka’wakw Headdress from Alert Bay

Another theme of the exhibition is the influence of cinema. Still a relatively new medium in the early half of the 1900s, film was able to put images in motion and create a fluid canvas on which perspective could be manipulated. From avant-garde films to Charlie Chaplin, to Betty Boop, cinema created a fictional world that the surrealists saw as similar to their own artistic ambitions.

Artists on display include: Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Alberto Giacometti and many more.