Surrealism

André Masson, Mannequin, 1938.

“The simplest Surrealist act consists of dashing down into the street, pistol in hand, and firing blindly, as fast as you can pull the trigger, into the crowd.”

André Breton

The Surrealist manifesto in 1924 defines 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. Dictated by the thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern. This can be applied in any circumstance of life, and is not merely restricted to the artistic realm. The importance of the dream as a reservoir of Surrealist inspiration is also highlighted”.

The manifesto also refers to the numerous precursors of Surrealism that embodied the Surrealist spirit prior to his composing the manifesto, including such luminaries as Giorgio de Chirico, the Marquis de Sade, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, the Comte de Lautréamont, Raymond Roussel, and even back as far as Dante.

The manifesto was written with a great deal of absurdist humour, demonstrating the influence of the Dada movement which immediately preceded it in France, and in which Breton was also a key player.

The group aimed to revolutionize human experience, including its personal, cultural, social, and political aspects, by freeing people from what they saw as false rationality, and restrictive customs and structures. Breton proclaimed, the true aim of Surrealism is "long live the social revolution, and it alone!" To this goal, at various times surrealists aligned with communism and anarchism.

Giorgio de Chirico, and his Metaphysical art, was one of the important joining figures between the philosophical and visual aspects of Surrealism. De Chirico was an influence on the two artists who would be even more closely associated with Surrealism in the public mind: Salvador Dalí and Rene Magritte. He would, however, leave the Surrealist group in 1928.

Metaphysical art (Italian: Pittura metafisica) is the name of an Italian art movement, created by Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carrà in 1917. Their dream-like paintings of squares typical of idealized Italian cities, as well as apparently casual juxtapositions of objects, represented a visionary world which engaged most immediately with the unconscious mind, beyond physical reality, hence the name. Pittura Metafisica provided significant impetus for the development of Surrealism.

André Masson was one of the most enthusiastic employers of automatic drawing, making a number of automatic works in pen and ink. Masson would often force himself to work under strict conditions, for example, after long periods of time without food or sleep, or under the influence of drugs. He believed forcing himself into a reduced state of consciousness would help his art be free from rational control, and hence get closer to the workings of his subconscious mind.

“How did I think up my drawings and my ideas for painting? Well I'd come home to my Paris studio in Rue Blomet at night, I'd go to bed, and sometimes I hadn't any supper. I saw things, and I jotted them down in a notebook. I saw shapes on the ceiling...”

Juan Miro’

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Surrealism as a visual movement had found a method: to expose psychological truth by stripping ordinary objects of their normal significance, in order to create a compelling image that was beyond ordinary formal organization, in order to evoke empathy from the viewer.

The characteristics of this style - a combination of the depictive, the abstract, and the psychological - came to stand for the alienation which many people felt in the modern period, combined with the sense of reaching more deeply into the psyche.

Another important surrealist artis was Meret Oppenheim. Many of Oppenheim’s pieces consisted of everyday objects arranged as such that they allude to female sexuality and feminine exploitation by the opposite sex. Her paintings focused on the same themes. Her originality and audacity established her as a leading figure in the movement.

Dalí was a versatile artist, not limiting himself only to painting in his artistic activities. Some of his more popular artistic works are sculptures and other objects, and he is also noted for his contributions to theatre, fashion, and photography, among other areas.

Two of the most popular objects of the surrealist movement were the Lobster Telephone and the Mae West Lips Sofa, completed by Dalí in 1936 and 1937 respectively, for the Surrealist artist and patron Edward James. Lobsters and telephones had strong sexual connotations for Dalí and he drew a close analogy between food and sex.

The wood and satin Mae West Lips Sofa was shaped after the lips of actress Mae West, whom Dalí found fascinating. West in fact was previously the subject of Dalí's 1935 painting The Face of Mae West.

Surrealism was a deeply revolutionary movement that developed in Paris, partly in response to the carnage and futility of the World War I. Calling for a revision of values, it was a reaction against positivism, realism, reason, logic, and the 19th-c. belief in progress.

For three years its activity and personnel coincided with those of the Paris branch of Dada, but the publication of André Breton's Manifeste du surréalisme in 1924 finally established its greater creative potential.

Surrealist artworks feature the element of surprise, irrationality and unexpected juxtapositions. Particularly important was Sigmund Freud's work with free association, dream analysis and the hidden unconscious to liberate imagination.

In the Surrealist Manifesto Breton advocates the idea that ordinary and depictive expressions are vital and important, but that the sense of their arrangement must be open to the full range of imagination.

Major Surrealist Artists:

Eileen Agar, (1899 - 1991)

Hans (Jean) Arp (1886-1966)

Hans Bellmer (1902-1975)

Luis Buñuel (1900 – 1983)

Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978)

Max Ernst (1891-1976)

Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966)

Rene Magritte (1898-1967)

Andre Masson (1896-1987)

Joan Miro (1893-1983)

Meret Oppenheim (1913 - 1985)

Yves Tanguy (1900-1955)