TACOMA, WA.- Tacoma Art Museum’s exhibition features a selection of recent acquisitions to the museum’s collection that explore the influences of surrealism in modern and contemporary art. The Surrealist Impulse: New Acquisitions from the Tacoma Art Museum Collection is on view through May 26, 2009.

Surrealism was a cultural and philosophical movement that had its genesis in 1920s Europe. The goal of the surrealists was to capture the essence of pure thought, unbound by reason or order. The writers and visual artists closely associated with this movement in Europe used this imagery as a reaction to the destruction and violence of World War I. Since the early 1930s, visual artists have continued to mine surrealism for its psychological impact by creating artwork based on dream imagery, non-sequiturs, and free association.

“The exhibition reflects the collecting goals of Tacoma Art Museum,” said Rock Hushka, Director of Curatorial Administration and Curator of Contemporary and Northwest Art for Tacoma Art Museum. “The broad range of media in The Surrealist Impulse emphasizes the diversity of works and artists new to the museum’s collection. One of the fascinating things about this project is that it reveals how smartly Northwest artists incorporate influences and conceptual threads in their work.” Tacoma Art Museum’s collection includes more than 3,500 works of art; nearly two-thirds were created by Northwest artists.

The exhibition—which includes glass, video, jewelry, ceramics, prints, and paintings—includes works that date from 1936 to the present by artists such as Gloria Bornstein, Scott Fife, Claudia Fitch, Joseph Goldberg, Anya Kivarkis, Mary Ann Peters, and Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen. Highlights of the exhibition are Chalice Holding the Stimson Mill from1936 by Morris Graves, a commentary on the rapid growth of Seattle’s industrial areas before World War II, and The Song of Songs of King Solomon from 1971 by Salvador Dali, a portfolio of twelve prints illustrating passages from a book of the Old Testament and one of Dali’s most sought-after series. More recent works demonstrate how automatic drawing, symbolism culled from dreams and the animal kingdoms, and other surrealist-inspired imagery continues to inform the work and practice of contemporary Northwest artists.

Works on view in The Surrealist Impulse were generously gifted to the museum by donors, including John and Shari Behnke, the Estate of Sandra Crowder, Anne Gould Hauberg, Lloyd Herman, Ben and Aileen Krohn, Greg Kucera and Larry Yocom, Mia McEldowney, Robert, Ross, and Arnold Ohashi, James G. Shennan, Jr., Rebecca and Alexander Stewart, Dr. Karen Weinstein, Scott and Ruth Wilson, and Ann and James Wiborg.