Tessel Bauduin presented this paper at the annual conference of the International Society for the Study of Surrealism in Bogota, 23-25 July 2025
Abstract
Surrealists and their associates were known collectors with a particular interest in Indigenous art from the Americas. Their collections spanned diverse works including Northwest Coast (including Tsimshian and Kwakwakaʼwakw) masks, pre-Columbian artifacts from Mesoamerica, Katsina dolls, and Día de los Muertos objects. Despite this diversity, surrealist collecting followed specific criteria based on an object’s perceived surreal(ist) potential. The collecting power of surrealist writers and artists was enhanced by extensive networks, avant-garde credibility, and international travel. Building on Nicolas Thomas’ concept of entangled objects, this paper traces the histories of selected artworks, including a 1960s Mexican paper Cucumber Spirit and an undated pre-Columbian statuette. I present their biographical trajectories across time and space, following them through surrealist collections into their current institutional contexts. The paper examines the distinctly surrealist approach to assembly and display—a reinvention of the curiosity cabinet, in my view—to critique how Indigenous American objects were labelled as “curios” or “specimens” throughout the 20th century by avantgarde and Modernist circles. This colonial practice implicitly persists in many museums and other institutions housing former surrealist collections today.
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Critical Heritage Ecologies 