Global Art • 1936
Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, the Museum of Modern Art's first exhibition to focus on Dada, is organised by founding director Alfred H Barr, Jr. It was the most comprehensive presentation of Dada works since the Dadaists' own exhibitions. It was also the first to be organised by a non-participant and the first to present Dada as a historical movement. The exhibition provokes fierce reactions from battling factions among the Dadaists and the Surrealists. Tristan Tzara threatens to forbid Barr from exhibiting his loans when he learns that the exhibition's title had been changed to include Surrealism and André Breton was to write the catalogue preface. Katherine Dreier withdrew her artworks and feuded with Barr over his inclusion of works by children and 'the insane'.