Emmanuel Di Donna has cultivated a unique presence in the blue-chip art world, standing out for his scholarly interest in Surrealism. He began his career at Sotheby’s, where he eventually climbed to worldwide vice-chairman, and went on to establish his own New York gallery in 2010. That gallery is known for organizing just two exhibitions annually, both of them deeply researched. These exhibitions are not about mere commercial success. Instead, Di Donna intends them as a way of contributing to the broader art historical narrative.
Focused mainly on the secondary market, Di Donna’s gallery distinguishes itself by showcasing Surrealists who are lesser known to those outside academia. His 2019 show “Surrealism in Mexico,” for example, explored a group of artists who, during the turbulent years of World War II, left Europe and found a new artistic home in Mexico. The exhibition featured a number of works that are now considered major contributions to the Surrealist movement, including a Leonora Carrington auction record that recently sold at Sotheby’s for $28.5 million, setting a new record for her. Remedios Varo, Alice Rahon, and Bridget Tichenor all featured in that show alongside Carrington. Those artists, who were under-recognized at the time, later appeared in the 2022 Venice Biennale.
Di Donna’s current show, “Hallowed Ground,” examines the work of four Surrealists from disparate cultures, Yves Tanguy from France, Wifredo Lam and Agustín Cárdenas from Cuba, and Alicia Penabla from Argentina. Each came to Paris to find inspiration, develop their practices, and ultimately find their voices. While those practices are different, all four artists shared an interest in squaring their respective cultures with modernist styles coming out of Paris. The show is one of the many staged this year to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the André Breton’s Surrealist manifesto.
ARTnews spoke recently with Di Donna about his entrée into the Surrealist world, his thoughts about the market today, and his latest exhibition.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and concision.
How did you become so passionate about Surrealism? How did you build your expertise in that area?
I discovered Surrealism when I did my master’s at the Courtauld Institute. I did thesis on Kandinsky, and then before I finished my master’s, I got hired by Sotheby’s to take care of the Juliet Man Ray estate in Paris. I was working with with Andrew Strauss, who was my boss from 1994 to 2000, in Paris. The mandate was to take everything that was in the apartment to storage and see what was there, what was worthwhile. We started with 2,000 items and eventually organized a sale of 500 works in London in 1995. It was a white glove sale, which means that 100 percent sold. Starting Surrealism with Man Ray is quite interesting, because it’s Surrealism in its broadest sense.
From 1995 to 2000, I was a specialist in Paris dealing with Impressionist and modern art. Yes, I dealt with Surrealism, but I was also working with Monets and Pissarros. In December 2000, we organized the first auction dedicated to Surrealism at Sotheby’s. We had a separate catalog and were given free reign in terms of what we could do. We threw away the corporate standards, created this fun catalog, and organized an exhibition in Paris. The whole gallery was pink. It was a really, really fun out-of-the-box project that kind of cemented my passion for this field where you can let your imagination run free and deal with very varied group of artists from very different backgrounds. What’s truly fascinating is that I think it is the only movement that’s still alive today, in a way. Young artists are still looking at Surrealism. And there is still a lot to say, a lot to explore, a lot to explain, because Surrealism is not simple. It’s a very intellectual movement.
There’s so much focus on those kind of big brand artists like Magritte, Dalí, and now Carrington, but I get the sense this is just the tip of the iceberg. What are we missing out on?
The market is missing a lot. With the exhibitions I’ve been doing over the years, I’m trying to show the universal nature of Surrealism. We think of Paris in the ’20s, which was obviously catalyst for all those artists coming from different places, from Spain, from England, Cuba, coming together with the avant-garde. But Surrealism is a very broad field. The Met exhibition three years ago [“Surrealism Beyond Borders,” a survey that globalized Surrealism] showed how wide the movement was, how international. The market has been focused for years on some key figures like Magritte and Dalí. But recently, there’s been a renewed interest in female Surrealists like Carrington or Valentine Hugo. Through the exhibition that we have at the gallery now, I think you see the plurality and the richness of that field. There’s a lot of amazing stories—and there’s still a lot to be to be told. I don’t think you can do that with Cubism.
Right, Surrealism is perhaps almost eternal, or at least our conceptions of it are still evolving.
And that’s because it’s about human emotions. It’s about dreams. It’s about sex. It’s anchored in the human psyche, you know. We can go explore Mars or the map the Moon, but will we ever be able to fully explore the human psyche?
In terms of “Hallowed Ground,” how did you choose these four artists, and what was the process of getting the pictures?
It all starts with an idea, right? You’ve got to dream those shows. That’s the reason why I have a gallery—I’m not just a private dealer, doing deals. I enjoy that mental exercise and the creative process of putting those artists together. I’m interested in creating discussions around these artists. I’m limited with the amount of works that I can put together, of course, but I love doing those smaller shows that can, one hopes, give impetus to a museum to pick up the idea and do something bigger, something deeper. My process involves a lot of research in books, in our database. I think often about what we need in order to tell a specific story. And after that, we go find those works. You knock on doors. You ask nicely. But I found over the years, when you have a good project, and a good track record of putting good shows together, clients are pleased to participate. After all, it’s to the benefit of the art and the artist, and of course those who own the pictures. At the end of the day, I build up prices, for other people. But I think it’s very important that work that is not done by most galleries. The packaging, the explanation, the context, is still very important. When people don’t know what they’re looking at or why it’s a problem.
I’d love to hear your kind of thoughts on the Surrealism market today, which obviously has seen a huge jump. Both the Magritte and the Carrington coming up for sale in November have been through your gallery. What do you think accounts for that the popularity of these Surrealist works that have been coming to market?
It’s crazy to think how much the Surrealism market has grown. René Magritte‘s L’empire des Lumières (1961) sold for $79.8 million at Sotheby’s in 2022. The previous record, made in 2018, was for $26.8 million, also at Sotheby’s, for the artist’s 1937 picture Le Principe du Plaisir. This is a direct result of interest, of good museum shows and gallery shows. Then a few good paintings come to auction and trigger the attention of collectors. It’s a whole universe that helps foster interest in a collectors mind. If there’s no exhibition, if there’s nothing being done, then it’s difficult.