Explore Magical Realism

In 1925, German photographer, art historian, and critic Franz Roh coined the term “magic realism” to describe a genre of painting that emerged following World War I. A reaction against the abstraction and the avant-garde that had risen to prominence before the war, Magic Realism embodied what was considered a “return to order” with more realistic subjects portrayed in a dreamlike manner. Among the movement’s most notable figures, Giorgio de Chirico is perhaps the most widely known.