Surrealism is considered one of the most influential intellectual and artistic movements of the 20th century. The exhibition "All surreal?! Photography in the cosmos of surrealism" at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart engages the medium of photography in a dialogue with paintings, drawings, sculptures, objects, and film excerpts, thus honoring for the first time on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of photography the special significance of photography for the artists of the formative art movement.

Founded in 1924 by André Breton in Paris, surrealist tendencies, starting from literature in the mid-1920s, also encompass painting and sculpture, bringing about a new aesthetic in the still young media of film and photography. Through unusual perspectives and experimental techniques such as solarization, multiple exposures, montages, and collages, surrealist photographers henceforth explore the boundaries of the medium anew and disrupt previous visual habits. Shocked by the senselessness of World War I and influenced by Sigmund Freud's writings, their works radically transcend the realms of reason and logic, emphasizing the associative and dreamlike. The human body, dissected and alienated, often takes center stage, aiming to approach a supposed reality. Through their staged realities, the surrealists present a counterproposal to the worldview of bourgeois society with its perceived hypocritical moral values, making a significant contribution to modernity, the echoes of which are still omnipresent in advertising, film, and art today.

The exhibition showcases over 250 photographs from the collection acquired in the summer of 2025 with the support of the Museumsstiftung Baden-Württemberg by Dietmar Siegert, along with more than 40 paintings, sculptures, objects, and works on paper from the museum's own collection, as well as high-quality loans from international museums and private collections. A scholarly catalog with an inventory of surrealist photography in the Staatsgalerie's collection will be published.

Curated by Dr. Jens-Henning Ullner (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart) and photo specialist Dr. Ulrich Pohlmann (former Munich City Museum), the exhibition is a special exhibition of the state of Baden-Württemberg under the patronage of the French Ambassador to Germany, H.E. François Delattre.

Philippe Halsman, Dalí Atomicus, ca. 1948, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Graphische Sammlung, acquired in 2025 with the support of the Museumsstiftung Baden-Württemberg, Dietmar Siegert Collection, © Philippe Halsman Estate 2026, Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026