I finally got round to seeing the Surreal Things exhibition, just in the nick of time! Surrealism is quite easy to dismiss thesedays as being gimmicky and all too familiar, but seeing such a huge amount of work all in the same place was really overwhelming. It really helped give a sense of the works originality - concepts that really were dislocating and difficult and against the grain. However the use of recognisable repeated motifs fueled the transition of the style from shocking, to becoming talked about to eventually becoming appropriated into all areas visual culture. Dr MF Agha, the art director of Vogue at the time, put it really well;
"What is a snobbish art scandal today is an accepted style tomorrow and a merchandised style the next day."
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