Capturing the Uncanny: Legacies of Surrealism in Photography

In the early twentieth century, Surrealist artists found inspiration in Sigmund Freud’s study of repression and deeply rooted fears. Their eerie, unsettling images influenced subsequent generations to capture the uncanny, or oddly familiar scenes that reveal desires, taboos, and suppressed memories. This exhibition traces the legacy of surrealism in the University of Kentucky Art Museum’s collection of photographs from the last fifty years.

Bizarre and imaginative scenes range from Sandy Skoglund’s large-scale treatment of the domestic as myth in Walking on Eggshells (1997) to Jahi Chikwendiu’s layering of semi-transparent portraits and architecture in Egyptian Blogger (2007). Masks, mannequins, and dolls also challenge normative conceptions of beauty and ideal forms. Exhibited artists also include Roger Ballen, Keith Carter, Bruce Cratsley, Denise Dixon, Misha Gordin, Robert C. May, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Aaron Siskind, Andrey Tatarovich, and Betsy Wurl McKean.

This exhibition has been organized in collaboration with Sophia Maxine Farmer and students in Interdisciplinary Approaches: 100 Years of Surrealism in the College of Fine Arts School of Art and Visual Studies.