A brush with Surrealist art

The show also features photographs of Parisian nights in the 1920s and 1930s, a film on bullfighting and magazines to help create a sense of the period in which surrealist art thrived. As Ottinger says, "Documentary films show the very real presence of legendary myths in modern times. For example, bullfights, which are a continuation of the Minotaur myth … (are) still done today."

Local artists, such as Keith Lam and Hazel Wong, have taken inspiration from the surrealists to create new works that are also on display at the show. Lam has created a robotic installation called Artificial Reality which explores the nuanced relationship between reality and simulation. Wong has created an animation video depicting the ways in which life in Hong Kong took surrealistic turns — as indeed it did elsewhere — since the pandemic began.

If you go

Mythologies, Surrealism and Beyond — Masterpieces from Centre Pompidou

A program of The French May Arts Festival

Dates: Through Sep 15, 2021

Venue: The Special Gallery, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon

hk.art.museum/