established rules or on craftsmanship; the only law was that of chance, and the only reality that of imagination Andre Breton • Manifeste du Surrealisme • rational thought was repressive to the powers of creativity and imagination and thus inimical to artistic expression • contact with the subconscious mind could produce poetic truth SURREALISM SURREALISM • coined by Guillame Apollinaire
• means “above reality”
• influenced by the psychoanalytical work of
Freud SURREALISM • an antiaesthetic movement which began as a revolt against the control exercised by rationality over accepted modes of communication • stresses the subconscious or non-rational significance of imagery arrived at by automatism • limited in scope and application only by the human capacity for self-expression 1925, Paris • the first group exhibition of surrealists – Andre Breton – Giorgio Chirico these painters – Max Ernst developed a – Andre masson dreamlike or – Joan Miro hallucinatory – Pablo Picasso imagery that was – Man Ray all the more – Rene Magnitte startling for its highly realistic rendering SAMPLE ARTWORKS OF REPRESENTATIVE SURREALISTS Automatic Drawing The Bride Strippe d Bare by Her Bachelo rs, Even The Elephant Celebes The Red Tower Eine kleine THIS IS NOT A PIPE. HARLEQUIN’ S CARNIVAL “beautif ul as the chance encounter of a sewing machine… and an umbrella…
on a dissecting table." Dada versus Surrealism
Surrealism was truly international, and
exponents of its revolutionary principles Inshared its negative attitudefaith an unshakable toward in theliterary and power of However, artistis surrealism tradition, and marked in its a stage to the opposition imagination to revitalize poetry and art and to beyond the nihilism that had inevitably heritage offor compensate thethe Western culture, sociopolitical and surrealism brought Dada to self-destruction religious forcesresembled superficially that they found Dada.so oppressive and stultifying in contemporary society