Surrealism

Surrealism

   The surrealism movement started on 1924 and ended on 1966 after Dadaism. Andre Breton (author of Surrealist Manifesto) defined Surrealism as "psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express - verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner - the actual functioning of thought." The surrealist conveys their hyper-realistic imagination and ideas in form of art, painting, photography, film and etc. Some of the arts has dream-like quality which never existed in real life but rather in one's mind.

"Beloved imagination, what I most like in you is your unsparing quality". (Andre Breton,1924)

  This revolution is against a society ruled by rational thought, meaning that Surrealist are tuned into the “superior reality” of the subconscious and produce artworks based on that. Some of the Surrealist are Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, Salvador Dali, Yves Tanguy, Rene Magritte, Hans Arp, Man Ray, Maurice Tabard, etc.

  Ernst used techniques like decalcomania (press a paper on painted surface and peel it off) and grattage. In photography, the techniques used are double exposure, combination printing, montage, and solarization, rotation or distortion to render bizarre images. Surrealism was the first artistic movement to experiment with cinema because it offered opportunity to produce the bizarre or the unreal.

Figure 1.0: The Barbarians (Max Ernst, 1937)

 Examples of other surrealism artworks:

      Figure 1.1: Special Automobile (Salvador Dali,1941)

Figure 1.2: Remains of an automobile giving birth to a blind horse chewing a telephone (Salvador Dali, 1939)

"Knowing how to look is a way of inventing."(Salvador Dali, Surrealism)

 Figure 1.3: The Satin Tuning Fork (Yves Tanguy, 1940)

 

Figure 1.4: The Accommodations of Desire (Dali, 1929)

  

                                                    

Figure 1.5: The Treachery of images (Rene Magritte, 1929)

                         Figure 1.6: Lobster Telephone (Salvador Dali, Edward James, 1936)

                      

 

Figure 1.7: Mae West Lips Sofa (Salvador Dali, 1938)

                             

Figure 1.8: The Song of Love (Giorgio de Chirico, 1914)

 

 As a conclusion, the surrealism is inserting unreal object or things into something normal or creating something out from mind and dream, which doesnt exist in real life. Today, this can be seen in movies like 'Alice in Wonderland' or cartoons like 'Mickey Mouse', where the characters do not exist in real life.

Reference:

The Art story Contributors, 2016, Surrealism,The Art Story.org, accessed on 18 October 2016, url:http://www.theartstory.org/movement-surrealism.htm

MOMA, 2000, The Barbarians, Metmuseum.org, Accessed on 18 October 2016, url: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1999.363.21/

 Unique Cars & Parts, 1999, Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989) - The Atomobile Clothed, Unique Cars & Parts, Accessed on 18 October 2016, url: http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/farewells_salvador_dali.php

 

Voorhies, J, 2000, “Surrealism.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accessed on 20 October 2016, url: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm