The exhibition includes around 50 key works by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Dorothea Tanning and many others. The pictures take up central themes of surrealism, such as dreams, the unconscious, transformation and the forest as a place of mystery. The collection was founded by the banker Claude Hersaint, who bought his first painting by Max Ernst at the age of 17. He developed a lifelong passion for art, which resulted in one of the most important collections of surrealist painting. The paintings from the Hersaint Collection are presented in dialogue with works from the Fondation Beyeler.
The exhibition is being organised thanks to the support of Claude Hersaint's daughter Evangéline Hersaint and her wife Laetitia Hersaint-Lair.
