Canna, by Ithell Colquhoun. © Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum

Exhibition Notice - 'Surrealism Returns' at the Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, Gloucestershire, is running until November 23 2008.

Things aren’t quite what they seem at Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, as its ongoing exhibition Surrealism Returns continues to enthral and bewilder.

Inspired by the 1938 Gloucestershire exhibition Realism and Surrealism, Surrealism Returns contains 16 works of art from private galleries and major collections. These are displayed alongside archival material telling the story of the controversial original exhibition.

With its exponent’s fascination with the emerging psychoanalytic movement and ultra-leftist tendencies, Surrealism reflected the dynamic social and political changes taking place in society at the time.

Key works on display at Surrealism Returns include Last Voyage of Captain Cook by Roland Penrose, Head of a Catalan Peasant by Joan Miro, and Belle Main by Man Ray.

Returning to the gallery’s walls as part of the exhibition is Picasso’s Weeping Woman, originally exhibited at the gallery for the first time in 1937. It was displayed as part of an exhibition of 15 Picassos, owned by Hugh Willoughby, a Cheltenham-educated collector.

For months after painting his vast mural Guernica, Picasso had made paintings based on a single motif within it. Weeping Woman is the last and most elaborate of the series, with features based on Picasso’s then lover Dora Maar.

A programme of events is currently taking place at Cheltenham to celebrate the Surrealist spirit. Gallery-goers can unlock the gates of their unconscious with A Surrealist Creative Writing Workshop, or take a guided tour looking for Surrealist influence in Cheltenham’s own collections.

For further information on upcoming events at the gallery, visit the website http://www.cheltenhammuseum.org.uk/