SURREALISM

SURREALISM
A style of art and literature developed principally
in the 20th century, in which fantastic visual
imagery from the subconscious mind is used with
no intention of making the artwork logically
comprehensible.

1924 – 1950s
Europe (especially France and Spain)

Founded in 1924 by poet and critic Andre

Breton who published The Surrealist Manifesto:
join the world of fantasy to the everyday rational
world in “an absolute reality, a surreality.” Breton
adapted the theories of Sigmund Freud- dream
analysis the unconscious is the wellspring of the
imagination.

Magritte, Time Transfixed, 1938.

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Charactieristics

▪Involves fantasy & dreams

▪Is illogical
▪Stresses the subconscious
▪Automatism – to allow your
subconscious mind to take over in your
art.
▪Demented sense of humor
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Surrealism and Society

The Surrealists sought to channel the unconscious as a
means to unlock the power of the imagination.

Powerfully influenced by psychoanalysis, the Surrealists

believed the rational mind repressed the power of the
imagination, weighing it down with taboos.

Sigmund Freud was profoundly influential for Surrealists,

particularly his book, The Interpretation of Dreams (1899).
Freud legitimized the importance of dreams and the
unconscious as valid revelations of human emotion and
desires.
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Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937.

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Picasso's Guernica is a very famous work of

art, which displays surrealist influence
throughout. In 1937, Picasso composed an
enormous-scale work, in order to demonstrate
his anger against a war with Guernica; the
mural sized piece was viewed by millions at
the Paris World's Fair.
SURREALISM Rene Magritte

Rene Magritte
(1898-1967)
Mother committed suicide when
Magritte was 14
Known for placing realistic
objects together in absurd
combinations

Rene Magritte, The Son of Man, 1964.

SURREALISM Rene Magritte

Rene Magritte
The Human
Condition
1933.
SURREALISM Rene Magritte

Rene Magritte
The Human Condition
1935.
SURREALISM Jacques Louis-David, Madame Recamier, 1800.
SURREALISM Magritte, David's Madame Recamier, 1950.
SURREALISM Rene Magritte

Rene Magritte
The Therapist
1941.
SURREALISM Magritte, Treachery of Images, 1928-29.
SURREALISM Rene Magritte, The False Mirror, 1935.
SURREALISM Magritte, The Lovers (2), 1928.
SURREALISM Salvador Dali

The images of Salvador

Dali are very realistically
rendered. He was a superb
draftsman and used that
ability to create a dreamlike
or nightmarish reality of his
own.

This image called Soft

Boiled Beans was also said
to be his premonition about
the Spanish Civil War.

Dali, Soft Boiled Beans, 1936.

SURREALISM Salvador Dali

Decay and death are

symbolized by a dead
tree and a strange sea
monster decomposing

The limp watch indicates

that someone has the
power to twist time as he
or she sees fit.

Bottom Line: in time,

everything will die and
decay except time itself

Dali, The Persistence Of Memory, 1931.

SURREALISM Salvador Dali, The Persistence Of Memory, 1931.
SURREALISM Salvador Dali, The Persistence Of Memory, 1931.
SURREALISM Photo of Dali, 1948 (Philip Halsman).
SURREALISM Salvador Dali, Disintergration of The Persistence Of Memory, 1954.
SURREALISM Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali,
Cannibalism in
Autumn,
1926-27.
SURREALISM Salvador Dali, The Metamorphosis of Narcissus, 1937.
SURREALISM Jean-Francois Millet, The Angelus 1857-59.
SURREALISM Dali, Archeological Reminiscence of Millet's Angelus, 1933-35.
SURREALISM Salvador Dali, The Temptation of St. Anthony, 1946.
SURREALISM Joan Miro

Joan Miro
Organic forms that expand and
contract visually

Used automatism - planned accidents

Element of hallucination

Very abstract, almost child-like images

Combination of unconscious and

conscious image-making

Miro, Le Petit Rose, 1933

SURREALISM Joan Miro

Joan Miró, A Dew Drop Falling from a Bird's Wing Wakes Rosalie, who
Has Been Asleep in the Shadow of a Spider's Web. 1939.
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Joan Miro
Dutch Interior I
1928.
SURREALISM Joan Miro, Harlequin’s Carnival, 1924-25.
SURREALISM Joan Miro
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Gertrude Abercrombie
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Remedios Varo
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Dorothea Tanning
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Helen Lundeberg
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Meret Oppenheim
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Kay Sage
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Rosa Rolanda
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Leonora Carrington
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Frida Kahlo
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Surrealistic Techniques -
“How to make the
ordinary look extraordinary”
•Scale
•Levitation
•Juxtaposition
•Dislocation
•Transparency
•Transformation
 SCALE
Changing an object’s
scale, or relative size.
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SCALE
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Personal Values
SCALE
LEVITATION
Floating objects that
don’t normally float
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LEVITATION
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Golconde

LEVITATION
JUXTAPOSITION
Joining two images
together in impossible
combinations
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JUXTAPOSITION
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JUXTAPOSITION
 DISLOCATION
Taking an object from its usual
environment and placing it in
an unfamiliar one
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DISLOCATION
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DISLOCATION
TRANSPARENCY
Making objects transparent that
are not usually transparent
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TRANSPARENCY
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TRANSPARENCY
TRANSFORMATION
Changing objects in
unusual ways
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TRANSFORMATION
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TRANSFORMATION