Surrealism or surrealist art - A twentieth century avant-garde
art movement that originated
in the nihilistic ideas of the Dadaist
and French literary figures, especially those of its founder,
French writer André Breton (1896-1966). At first a Dadaist,
he wrote three manifestos about Surrealism — in 1924, 1930, and 1934, and opened a studio for "surrealist
research."
Influenced by the theories of the pioneer of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (German, 1856-1939), the images found in surrealist works are as confusing and startling as those of dreams. Surrealist works can have a realistic, though irrational style, precisely describing dreamlike fantasies, as in the works of René Magritte (Belgian, 1898-1967), Salvador Dalí (Spanish, 1904-1988), Yves Tanguy (French, 1900-1955), and Alfred Pellan (Canadian, 1906-1988). These artists were partly inspired by Symbolism, and partly the Metaphysical Painting of Giorgio de Chirico (Italian, 1888-1978). Or, it could have a more abstract style, as in the works of Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893-1983), Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976), and André Masson (French, 1896-1987), who invented spontaneous techniques, modeled upon the psychotherapeutic procedure of "free association" as a means to eliminate conscious control in order to express the workings of the unconscious mind, such as exquisite corpse.
(pr. se-REE-el-izm)
Examples:
Listed
chronologically by artist's birth year
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Joseph Stella (American, 1877-1946), Flowers, Italy, 1931, oil on canvas, Phoenix Art Museum, AZ. Joseph Stella is most known for his Futurist paintings, but he did't limit himself to just one kind of expression. Stella produced realist and abstract works, along with a number as surreal as this composition of flowers.
Marc Chagall (French, born Belarus, 1887-1985; in France 1910-14, 1923-41; U.S.A. 1941-48; France 1948-85), The Poet with the Birds, 1911, oil on canvas, 28 1/2 x 39 inches, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. See Jewish art.
Marc Chagall, Paris Through the Window, 1913, oil on canvas, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY.
Marc Chagall, Birthday (L'Anniversaire), 1915, oil on cardboard, 31 3/4 x 39 1/4 inches (80.6 x 99.7 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY.
Marc Chagall, Over Vitebsk (Au dessus de Vitebsk), 1915-20 (after a painting of 1914), oil on canvas, 26 3/8 x 36 1/2 inches (67 x 92.7 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY.
Marc Chagall, Young Girl in Pursuit, c. 1927-28, oil on composition board, 25 3/4 x 19 3/4 inches (65.4 x 50.2cm), Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA.
Man Ray (American, 1890-1976), Pisces, 1938, oil on canvas, 60.0 x 73.0 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976), Capricorn, 1948 / 1964, bronze, 245 x 207 x 157 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.
Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893-1983), Painting, 1927, oil on canvas, 116 x 89 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris. See automatism.
Joan Miró, Painting, 1933, oil on canvas, 146 x 114 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.
Joan Miró, L'objet du couchant (Sleeping Object), summer 1935-1936, painted carob trunk, metal spring, gas burner, chain, manila and string, 68 x 44 x 26 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.
Joan Miró, Head of a Woman, 1938, oil on canvas, 18 x 21 5/8 inches, Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Joan Miró, Women and Bird in the Moonlight, 1949, oil on canvas, 81.3 x 66.0 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
André Masson (French, 1896-1987),
Ibdes in Aragon, 1935, oil
on canvas, 60.0 x 92.4
cm, Tate Gallery, London.
André Masson, The Earth, 1939, sand
and oil on panel,
43 x 53 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.
André Masson, The Red Lands and the Montagne Sainte Victoire,
1948, oil on canvas,
95.9 x 76.5 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
André Masson, Riez, 1953, oil
on canvas, 65.0 x 81.0
cm, Tate Gallery, London.
André Masson, Kitchen-maids, 1961, oil
on canvas, 50.2 x 61.0
cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Paul Delvaux (Belgian, 1898-1994), Femme au Miroir, 1945, oil
on Masonite, 35 3/4 x
31 inches, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. See mirror.
M.C. (Maurits Cornelis) Escher (Dutch, 1898-1972),
Drawing Hands, 1948, lithograph. See optical
illusion and self-portrait.
René Magritte (Belgian, 1898-1967), Man with a Newspaper, 1928, oil on canvas, 115.6 x 81.3 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
René Magritte, The Reckless Sleeper, 1928, oil on canvas, 116.0 x 81.0 x 2.0 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
René Magritte, The Treachery [or Treason] of Images, 1928-9, oil on canvas, 23 1/4 x 31 1/2 inches, private collection, NY. "Ceci n'est pas une pipe," means "This is not a pipe." See incongruity.
René Magritte, The Annunciation, 1930, oil on canvas, 113.7 x 145.9 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
René Magritte, The Rape, 1934, oil on canvas, 28 1/2 x 21 inches, collection George Melly, London.
René Magritte, The Future of Statues, 1937, painted plaster relief, 33.0 x 16.5 x 20.3 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
René Magritte, The Spirit of Geometry, 1937, gouache on paper, 37.5 x 29.2 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
René Magritte, The Age of Enlightenment, oil on canvas.
René Magritte, Euclidean Promenades, 1955, oil on canvas, 64 x 51 1/2 inches, Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
René Magritte, La clef de verre, 1959, Menil Collection.
Herbert Bayer (Austrian, 1900-1985, worked in USA), Self-Portrait in Mirror, 1932, gelatin-silver print, 13 7/16 x 9 3/4 inches (34.13 x 24.77 cm). See mirror and self-portrait.
Yves Tanguy (French-American, 1900-1955),
Reply to Red, 1943, oil
on canvas, Minneapolis
Institute of Arts.
Yves Tanguy, Through Birds, Through Fire and Not Through Glass,
1943, oil on canvas,
40 x W.35 inches, Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Alberto Giacometti (Swiss, 1901-1966), The Nose, 1947, plaster on metal, suspended by synthetic string within a metal structure, 81.5 x 66 x 36.7 cm, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. See angst and existentialism.
Wifredo Lam (Cuban, 1902-1982), The Jungle, 1943, gouache on paper,
mounted on canvas,
7 feet 10 1/4 inches x 7 feet 6 1/2 inches (239.4 x 229.9 cm),
Museum of Modern Art, NY. Lam's fantastical
moonlit scene portrays masked figures
amid stalks of bamboo
and sugarcane. Although he was an integral member of the surrealist
movement, Lam's multiperspectival renderings
of these figures mirrors his use of Cubist vocabulary.
Joseph Cornell (American, 1903-1972), Suzy's Sun (for Judy Tyler), 1957, mixed-media shadow box construction, 10 3/4 x 15 x 4 inches (27.3 x 38.1 x 10.2 cm), North Carolina Art Museum, Raleigh. See sculpture.
Salvador Dalí (Spanish, 1904-1989; active in Paris and New York), Lugubrious Game, 1929, oil on panel, 16 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches, private collection, Paris.
Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory, 1931, oil on canvas,
9 1/2 x 13 inches, Museum of Modern Art, NY. See distortion.
Salvador Dalí, Remorse or Sphinx Embedded in the Sand, 1931, oil on canvas.
Salvador Dalí, Retrospective Bust of a Woman (Buste de femme rétrospectif), 1933, some elements reconstructed 1970, painted porcelain, bread, corn, feathers, paint on paper, 29 x 27 1/4 x 12 5/8 inches (73.9 x 69.2 x 32 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY. See bust.
Salvador Dalí, Untitled (Petit Theâtre), 1934, wood and glass, painted, 12 3/4 x 16 3/4 x 12 1/4 inches (32.3 x 42.5 x 31.1 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY.
Salvador Dalí, Autumnal Cannibalism, 1936, oil on canvas, 65.1 x 65.1 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Salvador Dalí, Lobster Telephone, 1936, plastic, painted plaster and mixed media, 17.8 x 33.0 x 17.8 cm, Tate Gallery, London. This sculpture is a classic example of the Surrealist practice of juxtaposing otherwise unrelated everyday items. The Surrealists valued the mysterious and provocative effect of such incongruities. Dalí believed that his objects expressed the secret desires of the unconscious, and that lobsters and telephones reveal the prominence of the sexuality.
Salvador Dalí, Metamorphosis of Narcissus, 1937, oil on canvas, 51.1 x 78.1 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Salvador Dalí, Last Supper, 1955, National Gallery, Washington, DC. See cenacle.
Salvador Dalí, Portrait of Juan de Pareja, the Assistant to Valezquez, 1960, oil on canvas, 29 1/4 x 34 3/4 inches, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. See Spanish art and Baroque.
Peter Blume (American, born Russia, 1906-1992),
South of Scranton, 1931, oil
on canvas, 56 x 66 inches
(142.2 x 167 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
Alfred Pellan (Canadian, 1906-1988), On the Beach, 1945, oil on canvas, 207.7 x 167.6 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
"Balthus" Count Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (French, 1908-), Two Young Girls, 1949, oil on board, 27 1/2 x 29 1/2 inches (69.9 x 74.9 cm), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
Louise Bourgeois (American, born France,
1911-), Eyes, 1982, marble, 74 3/4 x 54 x 45 3/4 inches
(189.9 x 137.2 x 116.2 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
"Matta" Roberto Matta Echaurren (Chilean, 1912-2002), Let's Phosphoresce by Intellection #1, c. 1950, oil on canvas, 58 x 69 5/8 inches (148.6 x 179.1 cm), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
Meret Oppenheim (Swiss, born Berlin, 1913-1985), Red Head, Blue Body, 1936, oil on canvas, 31 5/8 x 31 5/8 inches (80.2 x 80.3 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY. See Swiss art.
Also see aleatory and aleatoric, anomaly, automatism, coulage, cryptic, deformalism, expressionism, fanciful, Fluxus, fumage, grotesque, isms and -ism, oneiric, Metaphysical Painting, parsemage, Symbolism, trencadis, and ugly.
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