Mona Lisa with a mustache and goatee. A white porcelain urinal. Pieces that once shocked the art world highlight a new exhibition featuring dada and surrealist masterpieces challenging the perception of what is real. The works by artists such as Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Man Ray made their only US appearance at the Cincinnati Art Museum beginning Sunday. The collection surveys two of the most significant art movements of the 20th century through more than 200 works including paintings, sculptures, collages, photographs and film. The exhibition traces surrealism beginning with its roots in the avant-garde dada movement that began in 1916 in response to the devastation of World of War I. Dada artists, blaming society for the horrors of the war, rejected Victorian values and traditional expectations of art through absurd and provocative images such as Marcel Duchamp's “Fountain.” The porcelain urinal he submitted under that title to an artists' exhibit shocked the art world in 1917. Surrealism, which emerged in the 1920s, challenged accepted ideas and juxtaposed realistic images with illusion, dreams and the subconscious. Rene Magritte's “The Castle of the Pyrenees” depicting a huge boulder hovering above dark ocean waves highlights the exhibition's surrealist work. Even the design of the exhibition in Cincinnati is intended to create a dreamlike effect. Theatrical scrims — gauzy fabric panels — encase some of the objects and create a sense of looking through a mist.
