Surrealism was never just about dreams and the subconscious—it was also about connection. Behind the movement’s most visionary canvases were relationships defined by passion, collaboration, and creative risk. Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning, Yves Tanguy and Kay Sage—each pair shared an emotional and artistic intensity that blurred the lines between muse and master, love and art. Their intertwined stories reveal how desire itself became a medium of surrealist expression.
Offered at Sotheby’s on 20 and 21 November, Exquisite Corpus brings these extraordinary works together for the first time in decades. From Dorothea Tanning’s haunting interior worlds to Yves Tanguy’s dreamlike landscapes, this collection captures how romance fueled imagination and redefined surrealism. These are not just paintings—they are love letters rendered in oil, pigment, and possibility.
