© Man Ray Trust/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2002

This display examines objects made by artists that were intended to surprise and provoke. In many cases the objects evoke desires and irrational fears associated with the deeper levels of the human psyche.

In the 1910s, Cubist artists such as Pablo Picasso began to introduce everyday materials such as wallpaper, newspaper and fabric into their work. Shortly afterwards, Dada artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray went further, exhibiting industrially-produced objects as works of art, or transforming them so that they took on a new, often humorous identity, far removed from their original function.

The Surrealist group recognised the importance of these works and championed the object as a new type of art. In 1924, their leader André Breton suggested that people should make objects seen in dreams. These dream objects would have no obvious function, but would perturb expectations and reveal the creative workings of the unconscious mind. Using everyday items, sometimes in surprising combinations, the Surrealists created numerous erotic, disturbing and playful objects. In 1936, they held a special exhibition of Surrealist objects, a number of which appear in this display. The exhibition included art works alongside a wide range of different types of objects, including mathematical objects, masks and ritual objects from Oceania and North-West America.

Later generations of artists have interpreted the legacy of Dada and Surrealist objects in various ways. Some celebrated the beauty of mass-produced articles. Others presented a bleaker vision of modern consumerism, creating objects out of discarded or manipulated goods to evoke alienation or mortality. The mapping of inner compulsions and desires onto familiar objects and materials, however, continues to be a major theme in contemporary art.

Texts by Jennifer Mundy

This display has been planned in conjunction with The AHRB Research Centre for Studies of Surrealism and its Legacies, of which Tate is a partner