London International Surrealist Exhibition

The International Surrealist Exhibition was held from 11 June to 4 July 1936 at the New Burlington Galleries in London, England.

The exhibition was organised by:

• Hugh Sykes Davies
• David Gascoyne
• Humphrey Jennings
• Rupert Lee
• Diana Brinton Lee
• Henry Moore
• Paul Nash
• Roland Penrose
• Herbert Read
• E. L. T. Mesens

The French organising committee were

• André Breton
• Paul Éluard
• Georges Hugnet
• Man Ray

The exhibition was opened in the presence of about two thousand people by André Breton. The average attendance for the whole of the Exhibition was about a thousand people per day.

During the course of the Exhibition, the following lectures were delivered to large audiences:

• June 16 — André Breton — Limites non Frontières du Surréalisme.
• June 19 — Herbert Read — Art and the Unconscious.
• June 24 — Paul Éluard — La Poésie Surréaliste.
• June 26 — Hugh Sykes Davies — Biology and Surrealism.
• July 1 — Salvador Dalí — Fantomes paranoiaques authentiques.

Dali's lecture was delivered whilst wearing a deep-sea diving suit. Nearly suffocating during the presentation, Dali had to be rescued by the young poet David Gascoyne, who arrived with a spanner to release him from the diving helmet.

Sources

• International Surrealist Bulletin, Number 4, September 1936.