This week has been rather more hectic than expected so I’m jumping around and the roulette wheel lands on Surrealism in Berlin — specifically the exhibit at the Neue Nationalgalerie ‘Max Ernst to Dorothea Tanning: Networks of Surrealism’. Some helpful fellow (sorry, don’t think I got a name) came up at the end of my Occulture talk and told me he had just seen the Leonora they had there, so no surprise I decided to get myself down there. Have I mention here how great transport is in Berlin? This was a bus day and while buses tend to be esteemed less than trains they are certainly easy to use and show and announce each stop so you’re not looking anxiously around to guess whether you are in the right place. And surrealism pops up in unexpected giraffes, too.

The exhibit is built around the collection of Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch and charts how the works and the artists escaped from the war and fascist forces. Often the pictures themselves carry the memories or insignia of those whose hands they passed through. Read more here.

Here’s a selection of some of the art on display, skewed as always to my interests:

A long look at the Leonor (or is it?) and of course a long peering at the Leonora. As usual, the more I looked the more I saw. At least I didn’t have to look through a keyhole. Click to embiggen any image for your own perusal.