SURREALIST ART

The movement in Surrealist art, literature, philosophy, and politics was founded in Paris by poet André Breton with his Manifeste du Surréalisme of 1924. Surrealism was based on modified principles of Dadaism, the nihilistic art and literary movement in Europe from 1916 to 1922. Claiming it was out to destroy art, Dada rejected standard conventions in aesthetics, producing art that was absurd and irrational. Both Dadaists and Breton felt that rational thought, which uses intellectual and deductive reasoning as opposed to introspective sensory data, had culminated in the destruction of World War I.

Breton’s purpose was to free people from false rationality and restrictive conventions in order to achieve the major goal of Surrealism—social revolution. The Surrealist political movement has often been aligned with anarchism and communism. Breton joined the Communist party in 1926, but withdrew in 1935 after determining Marxism required submission, which conflicted with the total freedom necessary for Surrealism.

Surrealist philosophy is based on psychoanalysis originator Sigmund Freud’s theory that human behavior is motivated by unconscious thoughts. Freud used dream analysis and free association to unveil the unconscious. Surrealists try to express unconscious thoughts and feelings in their works. Various techniques are used in Surrealist art and literature to unchain the imagination from conscious control. The most frequent approach is psychic automatism, which is spontaneous drawing, painting, and writing without conscious self-censorship of aesthetics and morals. Surrealist writers, using automatic writing to mine the unconscious, disregard literal meanings of words and substitute implied or associative meanings. Resulting works are very difficult to comprehend. 

Surrealist Art has been the crowning achievement of Breton’s movement. Yet, Surrealist documents of the Roaring Twenties state that Surrealism is not an art movement. Many Surrealist artists feel their work is above all an expression of the philosophy; the transcendence of artistic considerations is primary. Emphasis is on the connection between freeing the imagination and liberation from repressive social structures. Surrealist Art is often regarded as a mere by-product of the process utilized for travel on a much more important journey.

Surrealist Art embraces and incorporates primitive art and the art of children. Surrealists appreciate the untrained artist for having greater freedom to express the imagination sans constraints of conscious aesthetic and moral conventions. The uninhibited functioning of the mind’s instinctual urges is paramount in Surrealist Art.

The two expressive methods used in Surrealist Art are absolute Surrealism (psychic automatism) and veristic Surrealism. Imagery in absolute Surrealism is fantastical, derived from spontaneous, unconscious thought. Max Ernst and Joan Miró were prominent absolute Surrealists. Verist Surrealists use realist imagery arranged nonsensically, evocative of a dreamlike state. Salvador Dali and René Magritte were foremost among verist Surrealists.

Philippe Halsman's Photograph of Salvador Dali and Surreal Motion

Verist Surrealist Salvador Dali

 

The most famous painter of Surrealist Art was Salvador Dali. Born in Figueras, Catalonia, Spain, Dali was strongly influenced by Sigmund Freud’s theories and moved to Paris in the late 1920s, joining the Surrealists. The imaginative dream world of Dali’s art contains everyday objects realistically depicted, but deformed or weirdly juxtaposed with other objects, creating a hallucinatory view. Surrealist Art showcases eccentricity and idiosyncracy, declaring it is not indicative of madness. Dali, considered quite idiosyncratic, said there was only one difference between himself and a madman—he was not mad. A capitalist and supporter of Spain’s Francisco Franco’s fascist dictatorship, Dali was considered a traitor to the philosophy of Surrealism and was excommunicated from the group by Breton in the late 1930s.

What is Surrealism: Selected Writings, André Breton, Pathfinder Pr, 1978

The Dada Reader: A Critical Anthology, Dawn Ades, University of Chicago Press, 2006

The Persistence of Memory: A Biography of Dali, Meredith Etherington-Smith, Random House, 1^st ed edition