Beyond the ordinaire

Show time at the V&A: the latest in its series of survey exhibitions brings us Surrealism in all its faded glory and sempiternal intrigue — a gallery of the visually fickle and macabre, the once-disturbing and the lastingly chic. The exhibition starts well with a de Chirico stage set for Le Bal (1929), a couple of gorgeous drawings for it close at hand. Masson’s designs for the ballet Les Présages (1933) are not nearly so stunning, but with Miró we strike a return-to-form with a costumed figure actually pirouetting and film clips of Jeux d’enfants and the controversial Romeo and Juliet (designed with Ernst) showing nearby. In the second room, however, is the real justification for this exhibition — a collection of Surrealist objects. There’s never a problem finding these, the thing is to discover or relocate ones which are sufficiently haunting. Or haunted.

So here we have such classics as Duchamp’s bottle rack, Man Ray’s wrapped object (foreshadowing Christo by many a year), and his poignant flat iron with its ripping row of tacks.