Surrealism

Veristic Surrealism:

The viewer is confronted by a world

that is completely defined and
minutely depicted but that makes no
rational sense: realistically painted
images are removed from their
normal contexts and reassembled
within an ambiguous, paradoxical, or
shocking framework.

Eg: Salvador Dali’s The

Persistence of Memory

Abstract Surrealism:

The viewer is confronted with abstract images, usually biomorphic, that are suggestive but
indefinite.

Eg: Max Ernst’s Europe After the Rain II

 General Characteristics:

Influence of Technology: New media and materials

● Veristic surrealism did not incorporate new materials – usually oil paint was used.
● While abstract surrealists worked with traditional materials, they developed new ways of
using these materials to create interesting effects. Ernst in particular developed many of
these techniques and popularised them.
○ Exquisite corpse: different artists worked on different portions of an artwork in
isolation until a collective composition was created.
○ Automatism: “automatically” drawing whatever came to mind rather than planning
the composition in advance.
○ Grattage: scraping the canvas while the paint is still wet.
○ Fumage: using the smoke from fire to draw.
○ Frottage: putting a piece of paper over a textured item and rubbing graphite on it
to show the imprint.
○ Decalcomania: putting paint on a glass pane and pressing it on to the canvas to
create its own shape, or folding a paper in half to spread the paint and create a
mirror image.
○ Assemblage: distorting and combining found objects to create surreal sculptures.
○ Collage: piecing together different elements from various sources, like
photographs, to create a new piece.

Art as Idea

● Previous paintings throughout history had surrealist qualities. The surrealist artists were
particularly inspired by the works of Hieronymous Bosch and Franciso Goya.
● Automatism – artists were trying to access pure, unrestricted imagination by automating
their creation process. They did not want to be held back by conscious fears and biases,
but rather to let the unconscious take control. Spontaneity was the motivation behind
creation.
● The dreamscape became particularly interesting to explore as society tried to
understand it using psychology.
● The things going on in society were surreal themselves, so art was aiming to reflect this
weirdness and reject rationality.
● Surrealists wanted to bypass social conventions and explore both the individual and
collective subconscious.

Reflection of Society (historical; political; social; economic and global circumstances)

● Surrealism was born in 1924 after poet André Breton wrote the surrealist manifesto. It
was not just a visual art movement – literature, poetry, drama, photography and film all
had their own surrealist period, showing just how widespread this interest was.
 ● Psychologists Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud had a profound impact on the movement
for their focus on the psyche, subconscious, and the significance of dreams.
● During the formal surrealist period (1924 - about 1966), they saw the impact of the Great
Depression in America in the 30s; World War II in the 40s; the rise of consumerist culture
in the 50s; and the rise of several political and social movements in the 60s.

Art and Psychology

● Various experiments were conducted by the surrealists to access the subconscious:

○ Dali would fall asleep holding keys which would drop on a plate, awakening him
almost as soon as he had begun sleeping. This state was supposedly the closest
one could get to the subconscious while awake.
○ Ernst and other artists experimented with hypnotism.
○ Some artists tried to access their subconscious by sleep depriving themselves for
days, while others took hallucinogenic drugs.
● Surrealists were incredibly interested by this new idea of the subconscious and
unconscious world, and what the contents of this world could reveal about themselves
and humanity.
● Just like during the Dada movement, the surrealists were disillusioned with the rational
world which had produced various man-made horrors.