Kati Horna, “Sin título, serie Oda a la necrofilia, Ciudad de México,” 1962. Gelatin silver print, 5.75 x 6.12 in.




Surrealism Shocks Again 
at Throckmorton Fine Art



It has been a century since French poet and theorist André Breton published his Surrealist Manifesto, establishing a new artistic genre that sought inspiration from the depths of the human imagination and psyche. A new, provocative exhibition at Throckmorton Fine Art Gallery in New York celebrates the influence of Surrealism on photography, with over 50 works by dozens of artists from Europe, America, and beyond.


Surrealism in photography is characterized by images that somehow distort rational perceptions of the world, the photographer frequently manipulating the representation of reality to unsettle the viewer. Some used photographic techniques such as double exposures, sandwiched negatives, photomontage, and polarization, while others preferred to stage images with props, theatrical poses, and lighting.



Tina Modotti, “Experiment in Related Form or Glasses,” 1924. Platinum print, 10 x 11 in.



The show, curated by María Míllan, mixes little-known imagery by unsung artists who adopted experimental approaches inspired by Surrealism with famous, iconic 20th-century photographs, like Tina Modotti’s “Experiment in Related Form or Glasses,” 1924. This is a dark and moody vintage platinum print where the artist transforms simple water glasses into a thoughtful reflection on time, perception, and beauty. This image is one of the exhibition's highlights.



Left: Margaret Bourke White, “The George Washington Bridge,” 1933. Gelatin silver print, 8 x 10 in. Right: Philippe Halsman, “Jean Cocteau & Leo Coleman,” 1949. Based on Cocteau's film. Life Magazine, 1949, printed 1980s. Gelatin silver print, 8 x 10 in.



Other images are fascinating dreamscapes, including Margaret Bourke White’s imaginative representation, “The George Washington Bridge,” 1933. An unusual perspective is used to convey the enlarged, extended space between the metal pylons that straddle the Hudson River. The cables look like giant curtains pulled back to reveal the vast, blank expanse of the sky. 



Berenice Abbott, “Jean Cocteau's Hands,” 1927. From Faces of the 20's portfolio (57/60), printed 1981. Gelatin silver print mounted on board, 13.36 x 10.36 in.



Edward Weston, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Leonora Carrington, Ana Medieta, Henri Cartier-Bresson, André Kertész, Dora Maar, and Berenice Abbott are among the other celebrated photographers with works on display. Especially provocative is Abbott’s “Jean Cocteau's Hands" from Faces of the 20's portfolio, in which a simple pair of hands is transformed into something alien-looking. Cocteau, a French playwright, reappears in another, equally bizarre image by Lucien Clergue. Titled “Jean Cocteau Le Testament d'orphee,” from 1959. The artist is shown lying on a bed with a lit cigarette in his mouth. He looks a bit like a madman, or a corpse, with his eyes wide open and his body and hands completely still. This is a very strange photograph and deeply unnerving as a portrait. 



Left: Flor Garduño, “Archaeology of Duchamp/Arqueologia de Duchamp,” Mexico, 2014. Gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 in. Right: Kati Horna, “The Flagon | El botellón,” 1962. Gelatin silver print 9.50 x 6.62 in.



Throckmorton Fine Art is a preeminent gallery for Latin American photography, past and present, and the show includes work by some excellent living Latin American artists. Mexican photographer Flor Garduño has built a reputation for her surrealistic images of her native country, a country with a longstanding connection to Surrealism— Breton made a visit there in 1938 and pronounced the country as the "Surrealist place par excellence."


Garduño is best known for her ambiguous images of nudes in the landscape. But she also creates Surrealistic still life images such as “Archaeology of Duchamp/Arqueologia de Duchamp,” from 2014, in which the upright frame of a street cart with a wheel attached is intended to reference the Surrealist/Dada artist Marcel Duchamp’s famous 1913 artwork “Bicycle Wheel,” an improvised sculpture consisting of a bicycle fork and front wheel mounted upside-down on a simple wooden stool.



Left: Francesca Woodman PE/FW, “George and Betty Woodman,” n.d. Gelatin silver print 8 x 10 in. Right: André Kertész, “Satiric Dancer,” 1926. Gelatin silver print, 9 x 7 in.



There is also one photograph by Francesca Woodman, a talented but emotionally troubled American photographer of the 1970s and 1980s who committed suicide at the age of twenty-two. She is represented in the show by “George and Betty Woodman,” undated, a ghostly gelatin silver print of her parents, who were also artists, obscured by a white sheet, standing behind a tree. Woodman’s image of her parents is haunting and peculiar, like many of the other, often unsettling works on display in this enticing exhibition. It is definitely worth a visit, maybe even more than once, if only to leave the realities of our own world behind us.



Surrealism: Over A Century Merging the Realms of Dreams and Reality

October 2nd – November 29, 2025

Throckmorton Fine Art

145 East 57th St, 3rd fl., NY, NY 10022

Tel. 212.223.1059      throckmorton-nyc.com      info@throckmorton-nyc.com