Surrealism in Exile and the Beginning of the New York School

Surrealism in Exile and the Beginning of the New York School by Sawin, Martica. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780262692014.

The French/European story of Surrealism has been written; the story of abstract expressionism has been told. But the connection between them, how one acted as a catalyst for the other, has been a long-missing chapter in the history of art. Martica Sawin finally provides it. In this fascinating account of what was happening within Surrealism during the crucial years 1938-1947, Martica Sawin documents the cultural transfer that took place when the greater part of the prewar Surrealist group was transplanted to the Western Hemisphere. Eminently readable, clearly told, and biographically rich, Sawins year-by-year narrative pieces together when and how the refugees arrived and their various points of contact with the future abstract expressionists.