Lobster Claw

c. 1929

Lobster Claw, c. 1929. Jean Painlevé (French, 1902–1989). Gelatin silver print; image: 22.9 x 17.3 cm (9 x 6 13/16 in.); paper: 24.2 x 18.4 cm (9 1/2 x 7 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 2007.99 A hallmark of Surrealism is the ability to get the viewer to look at a commonplace object or scene and suddenly see it differently. By simply removing the object from context and turning the image on end here, the transformation was realized. Its two creators often worked in a documentary mode, but sometimes ventured beyond it to explore the boundaries between Realism and Surrealism.