How the Surrealists Psyopped the Gestapo and Otherwise Fought Fascism
ARTnews reviews “In the Very Bowels of Change: Surrealism and Antifascism,” an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw that traces Surrealism’s political engagement and resistance to fascism. Central to the show are the “paper bullets” created in the 1940s on the island of Jersey by French artists Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, who planted taunting notes aimed at demoralizing German soldiers; the pair were caught and sentenced to six years on one charge and the death penalty on another, but survived because the war ended before the sentences were carried out. The Warsaw presentation is adapted from a 2024 Lenbachhaus exhibition in Munich titled “But Live Here? No Thanks: Surrealism and Antifascism.” The article also highlights how excerpts from Luis Buñuel’s film “Golden Age” (1930) frame Surrealism’s clash with the Right, referencing a 1930 Paris screening attacked by the Antisemitic League of France and noting later Surrealist organizing such as Contre-Attaque, formed after the Spanish Civil War began in 1936 by figures including Cahun, André Breton, and Georges Bataille.
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This story was covered in Blockbusters, Crackdowns, and a Market Under Siege