SOME MARMALADE WITH YOUR SURREALISM?

The first Briton to collect surrealist art was Sir Roland Penrose (1900-84), poet, painter, biographer of Picasso and co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Not far behind him was Gabrielle Keiller, a leading golfer who became known as the Marmalade Queen after marrying into the Keiller family, makers of Dundee marmalade. In 1995, 26 works from the Penrose collection were bought with lottery funds by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; the same year, the redoubtable Mrs Keiller died, and the gallery inherited her collection of 136 works. Now the gallery is marking its 50th birthday with a blockbuster show that mixes both collections with pieces loaned by private and institutional owners, including Duchamp’s infamous urinal from the Tate, and Dali’s “Exploding Raphaelesque Head” (pictured).

Penrose described surrealism as an attitude rather than a school of art. Absurd, iconoclastic, anarchic and nonsensical, these works have always aroused controversy. The movement flourished from 1924 and fizzled out after the second world war; the attitude was kept alive for longer, by the jazz singer and bon vivant George Melly, who died recently, as well as by lesser-known British surrealists exhibited here, such as the eccentric Ithell Colquhoun, high priestess of the occult and clan bardess of the Colquhouns. Ready-made objects, collages, new photographic techniques and realistic dream paintings by Magritte, Dali, Miró, Tanguy, Ernst, Man Ray and the rest conjure an atmosphere of craziness. Expect the unexpected: when Penrose organised the International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936, Dali made a celebrated appearance in a diving suit and helmet, in an attempt to show that he was plunging deep into the waters of the subconscious, and nearly suffocated.

"Another World: Dali, Magritte, Miró and the Surrealists" is at the Dean Gallery in Edinburgh until January 9th

~ KAREN TAYLOR