Surrealism

toc = = = = =Introduction=




 * Paul Klee,** **//Death & Fire//****, 1940. Oil on Canvas**

Surrealism is an art movement that began after the Dada movement and flourished in Europe between World War I and World War II and brought about many new developments in the world of art (Lubar, 14).

In contrast to the [|Dada] movement which focused on anti-art, Surrealism deals with the re-uniting of the conscious and the subconscious to create an absolute reality which is then frozen so that it can be recorded literally or visually and then analyzed. Surrealism took the idea of the individual psyche as its theoretical starting point, thus particularly reflecting the psychoanalytic work of Sigmund Freud. Surrealism emphasized artistic process whereby the imaginary can be recorded through automatic writing or drawing which would thus offer insights into the world of “thought” and therefore disrupt taken-for-granted perceptions and frames of reference. For the Surrealists, the artist was the starting point or material source of what was to be expressed. Freud has distinguished between if Id, the unconscious instinctual self and the Ego, the largely conscious socialized self. Likewise, Surrealists distinguished between “thought” and “reason” and aimed to bypass what they saw as repressive nature of reason in order to express natural desires (Wells, 270). Some of the Key players include Andre Breton; father of Surrealism, Salvador Dali, May Ray and [|Paul Klee] to name a few.

Other Surrealist Artists:

 * •**[| Marcel Duchamp]
 * • Jean Arp**
 * • Max Ernst**
 * • Rene Magritte**
 * • Jean Miro**
 * • Alberto Giacometti**
 * • Yves Tanguy**

= = = = =The Key Figures=

Andre Breton
Many members of the Dada Movement also became interested in the Surrealist style that supplanted it. The writer Andre Breton bridged the gap between Dada and Surrealism with his First Surrealist Manifesto of 1924. He advocated art and literature based on Freud’s psychoanalytic techniques of free association as a means of exploring the imagination and entering a world of myth, fear, fantasy and dream. The very term surreal, connotes a higher reality- a state of being that is more real than mere appearance.

Breton had studied medicine and, like Freud, had encountered the trauma’s experienced by victims of shell shock in World War I. This lead both Breton and Freud to recognize the power that trauma had over logical, conscious thinking. As a result, Breton wished to gain access to the unconscious mind, where he believed, the source of creativity lay. He recommended writing in a state of free-floating association in order to achieve spontaneous, unedited expression. This “automatic writing” influenced European Abstract Surrealists, and later, in the 1940’s had a significant impact in the Abstract Expressionists’ in New York City. The Surrealists’ interest in gaining access to unconscious phenomena, led to images that seem unreal or unlikely, as dream images often are, and to odd juxtapositions of time, place and iconography.(Adams, 488).

Salvador Dali (1904-89)


//**The Persistance of Memory**//**, 1931. Oil on canvas**

[| Salvador Dali] was a leader in this movement and with the use of many of his creative methods to capture the subconscious, such as his Paranoiac Critical Method, he in turn creates some of the most breathtaking and memorable pieces of his time. His use of photographic realism and extreme use of symbolism forces the viewer to open their eyes and really look at the work and become engaged in its imagery. Dali quotes, “Let us be satisfied with the immediate miracle of opening our eyes, becoming skillful in the apprenticeship of looking well. Looking is a way of inventing” (Dali,123). Furthermore, his painting style as well as subject matter takes on several of the characteristics of [|modernism] incorporating revolutionary ideas in and surrounding his work.

Modernism is comprised of many different characteristics and caused a drastic shift in the art community as many conventions began to change rapidly. Art began to be created for arts sake, there was a fundament shift in patronage, older ideas were rejected and art was being created with a more sexualized process. Dali paintings have come to represent a challenge to the Modernist tradition, his dry photographic realism pitted against the idealist tendencies of Cubism & abstract art. //Accommodations of Desire// (fig.1) contains no abstract qualities at all, rather can be viewed with the utmost of clarity as it is executed with extreme precision and much attention went into the accurate rendering of the images. As a result it can be considered to be on the opposite side of the spectrum. He also rejects Impressionism’s emphasis on the accidental and the fugitive as well as the metaphysical pondering of Symbolism and uses academic techniques to illustrate his work (Lubar ,9). Dali’s work in a sense rejects the principals of modernism because of his classical technique and obsession with realism but on the other hand embraces it in terms of subject matter and content. His dreamlike images focusing on the subconscious and being able to capture it visually, is something that his predecessors did not attempt and he pushed the very boundaries of modern art. Dali embraces all the science of painting as a means of studying the psyche through subconscious images and then turns to his canvas to record his findings (Lubar, 12). Dali being a strong willed, highly opinionated individual, painted what he wanted for himself and had little concern over what others thought and if his work would be bought. He was seldomly commissioned to paint and expressed himself in what even manner he saw fit.

Salvador Dali is considered to be one of the most well known artists of the Surrealist movement, his work extremely recognizable due to his photographic-like paintings filled with Freudian and highly sexualized imagery. His work encompasses all of what the Surrealists sought to achieve, his paintings addressing the physical, psychological & linguistic components of vision (Lubar, 11). He found new and unique ways to view and record the world around him. Also, his work speaks to him on an individual level, all of his symbolism relating to his life personally whether it be what he is questions in life, his greatest fears or his most extreme desires. Dali’s ideas and work including Accommodations of Desire, employ several of the principals of modernism and due to his impact on the art world, has made a name for himself on a global scale.




 * Fig.1. //Accomodations of Desire//, Oil on panel.**

=Surrealist Photography=

Surrealist photographers used **photomontage, double exposure, rayographs, or solarization** in order to produce disorienting imagery. Key Surrealist artist-photographer Man Ray, remarked that he painted that which cannot be painted. The realism that was associated with the photograph was utilized, more or less playfully as a tactic to contribute to the Surrealist provocation of new insights as objects, persons or locations were rendered in unexpected conjunctions or distortions or particular motifs doubled within the image.(Wells, 274)

Man Ray (1890-1976)
He was a surrealist who had also been a part of the [|Dada] movement. In 1921, he moved to Paris where he showed his paintings in the first Surrealist exhibition in 1925. He worked as a fashion and portrait photographer and avant-garde filmmaker. His experiments with photographic techniques included the **Rayograph**. Ray’s most famous photograph, //**Le Violon d'Ingres**// combines Dada wordplay with Surrealist imagery. By adding sound holes, May Ray puns on the similarity between the nude and the holes exemplifies the dreamlike imagery of Surrealism.

Man Ray strongly defended the art of photography and argued against those unwilling to treat it as an art form. In Photography Can Be Art, he wrote,

"When the automobile arrived, there were those who that declared the horse to be the most perfect form of locomotion. All these attitudes result from a fear that the one will replace the other. Nothing of the kind has happened. We have simply increased our vocabulary. I see no one trying to abolish the automobile because we have the airplane." (Adams, 488)

//**Le Violon d'Ingres**// **1924. Photograph.**

Photomontage
The use of two or more originals, perhaps also including written text to make a combined image. A montaged image may be imaginative, artistic, comic or deliberately satirical.

Rayograph, Solarisation
Aesthetic techniques associated in particular with the work of **Man Ray** and Lee Miller. Solarisation involves brief exposure to light during printing thereby altering tonal contrast. **Rayographs** or photograms are cameraless photographs made by placing objects on photographic paper then exposing them to light. (Wells, 273).

=Work Cited=

Adams, Laurie S. //Introduction to Western Art.// New York: McGraw Hill Companies Inc. 2001. Dali, “La fotografia, pura creacio de l’esperit,” L’Amic de les arts No. 18 (September 1927); in Jaime Brihuega Manifiestos, proclamas, panfletos y textos doctrinales: Las vanguardias articas en Espana. 1910-1931 (Madrid, 1979), p.123-126. Hammacher, A.M. //Phantoms of the Imagination.// New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1981 Harris, Nathaniel. //The Life and Works of Dali//. Bath: Parragon, 1994 Hirsch, Robert. //Seizing the Light: A: A History of Photography.// New York: The MCgraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000. Lubar, Robert S. //Dali, the Salvador Dali Museum Collection//. Canada: Little, Brown & Company, 1991 Wells, Liz. //Photography: A Critical Introduction, 3rd edition.// New York: Routledge, 2004. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Breton http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD http://www.drexel.edu/coas/ask/featured-interviews/dali/accomodations-of-desire.jpg