06/10 SURREALISM

the psychic revolution

The Fourth VRF Style

FROM DADA INTO DREAMS

Dada was a separate style from Surrealism but it is forever linked to it. Dadas brief success in 1920s Paris was quickly eclipsed by the rise of a more organized and coherent group: Surrealism Attracted to a new cause, many Dadaists joined this new group along with many intellectuals Thus Surrealism, which wanted to create art out of our unconscious dream world, was able to use many of Dadas methods to achieve their goals

CONTEXT: THE TWENTIES

Dada stood for opposition, anger and nihilism: Surrealism, however, is often described in terms of utopian optimism, escapism and a revolutionary future. These features were always going appeal to a greater number of people because they reflected the energy of the new post-war age The following five points show how Surrealism belonged to the Roaring Twenties

1. Hollywood
The Twenties was the age of the musical, made on a huge scale, like Bollywood today When you entered this world you escaped into a fantasy world and forgot todays and yesterdays troubles In art and in society, therefore, fantasy was the thing for many people and Surrealism exploited this

2. The Psychic
The Twenties saw a dramatic increase in interest in religion, magic and the occult From Picasso and Kandinsky, to widows and mothers, a traumatized Europe looked for answers to their losses in seances and psychic photography The Surrealists pursued the magical and exotic, and put it at the centre of their art

3. Outsider Art and Di Chirico

The war created a desire for innocence and so child art, the art of the insane and nave (outsider) art became popular Most notably, Giorgio Di Chiricos art in Italy (1913 - 20) explored nostalgia and memories in a way that inspired Dali The Surrealists took these sources of innocence further

4. The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution occurred as the Great War ended and filled many with the feeling that it was a time for dramatic change It inspired many to talk in terms of revolutions: political - psychic gender - art The Surrealists presented themselves as artistic revolutionaries who would save the world, no less

5. Freud: the subconscious

Freuds writings, translated in the 1920s, seemed to provide a set of insights into and methods for exploring our subconscious, and these were taken up by these art revolutionaries, esp. Dali Automatic writing, hypnosis, association games, sexual obsessions and phallic symbolism became a talking point and a cultural staple All these came to make up the Surrealist vocabulary of the subconscious

SUMMARY: SURREALISM IN 5
1. Something New: Surrealism
marks a return in modern art to content and meaning, but now using suggestion, unusual associations, broken pictorial conventions and dream-like qualities to create a new super-reality A Group (Paris): Surrealism was founded by the writer Andre Breton in 1922. He ran a tight ship (events magazines, meetings) and until it ended in 1939 it attracted creatives from all areas areas of practice who were fascinated by its desire to change the world with a psychic revolution

2.

SURREALISM IN 5
3. Utopian Theories: Surrealism pure psychic automatism by which one tries to express the actual process of thinking: thought dictation without any control exercised by reason.Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of neglected forms of associations, in the omnipotence of the dream, the destruction of all other (modes of thought)in order to solve the primary problems of life Manifesto 1924

Quite ambitious wasnt it ?

SURREALISM IN 5
4. Two Versions: Surrealist art
quickly dazzled Paris in its automatic version, but its popularity only increased with the arrival of Magritte and Dalis verist version: huge exhibitions followed Many Endings: 1929 saw defections and the Wall St crash, Dali was expelled in 1932 and, after numerous splits, most left for America in 1939. That seemed the end of it - but its echoes continued, especially in design and media (see Crossover examples later)

5.

PUBLIC IMAGE 1: DALI

Events and history mean that Salvador Dali is the publics idea of Surrealism I am Surrealism he said: avida dollars: said Breton This is what you usually get: - smooth finish - detail
- dramatic shadow - suggestion - real location - realism - optical illusion - juxtapositions - freudian symbols/hidden meanings

These are much copied but Surrealism is more than this

PUBLIC IMAGE 2: OUTRAGE

Learning from Dada and Futurism, Surrealism gained notoriety through its stunts, events and outrages. The newspapers loved it but, today, we tend to forget this and so forget that Surrealism was all about confrontation and gesture Watch Europe after the Rain (32) and Shock of the New (64, ep 4) for this, along with Un Chien Anadlou (Dali and Bunuel))

SURREALISMS METHODS
Few styles can have used so many different methods to achieve their ends From Automatism to Verism, the artists searched to find ways of achieving the goals of the writers and leaders:
automatic drawings, odd juxtapositions, rubbings, chance, illusions, dream effects, unexpected links, hypnosis, drugs, film, game strategies, transformations, montages biomorphism, found images, super/altered realism Have you played exquisite corpse?

FOUR STARS OF SURREALISM: ERNST

MAX ERNST brings methods from Dada to Surrealism and with frottage and rubbings he discovers images automatically, like seeing faces in the clouds, using the accidents of chance encounters Like Surrealism itself, Ernst moves on to paint images from photomontage sources and so creates a verist dream world Ernsts distortions and personal symbolism are disturbing and reveal the sinister side of the subconscious

FOUR STARS: MIRO

JOAN MIRO is the main figure of early Surrealisms automatic version His graffitti-like images come from strategies and games that generate accidental or unconscious marks Emulating child art, he adds his own personal signs and symbols to create revelatory art that leaves behind past conventions of art

FOUR STARS: DALI

SALVADOR DALI brought his detailed technique to Freuds ideas and created a dream world much as a colour photograph Dalis verist direction took Surrealism away from revolution, dream interpretation and therapy and towards beauty, imagination and Symbolism The art world and Surrealism has never forgiven him for this

DALI 2

FOUR STARS: MAGRITTE

RENE MAGRITTE is described as a philosopher-painter, giving visual form to puzzles, paradoxes and phobias His group in Belgium, after a brief period in Paris, used a naturalistic style of odd and humorous juxtapositions that was close to illustration, making his work accessible to the public, graphic designers and photographers - making his art familiar to many

MAGRITTE 2

REPUTATION
Surrealism was mostly downplayed when the story of Modernism was written: - it was figurative. - they were cowards. - they didnt deliver change.. - Dali was after the money. However, many of the artists and the ideas of Abstract Expressionism (1950s) come out of automatism and much recent art is a return to their odd treatment of the everyday

CROSSOVER 1

Surrealism lives on in the worlds of Graphics, Film, Media Applied Arts and Design Throughout his career, for example, Dali made films and collaborated with Disney and Hitchcock So common have their surreal effects become in films (FX) that the term has now entered our language and is often applied to comedy such as Monty Python, Tom and Jerry and more

CROSSOVER 2
The New Look, 1950s design, was the first style to incorporate surrealist forms New York and Polish graphics became the major centres of surrealist illustration, which influenced todays Gerald Scarfe (The Wall) and Ralph Steadman The psychedelic typography of the Sixties continues this theme and, of course, the drugs - dream connection

CROSSOVER 3
Whether it is Architecture (Gaudi), Craftwork, or Fashion (Schiapperelli), Surrealism has proved to be inspiring for craft/design/media/photography Todays digital and Postmodern world, unsurprisingly, often harks back to the forms, the humour and darkness of an art style that wanted to be more than just an art styleand maybe it succeeded, aesthetically Go to the online lectures for more information and examples