3. Surrealism
A movement in the visual arts and literature
that flourished in Europe between
World Wars I and II.
4. SURREALISM
Exploration of ways to express in art the world
of dreams and the unconscious
Inspired by Freud and Jung - interested in the
nature of dreams
In dreams, people moved beyond the
constraints of society
Artists’ role: to bring inner and outer reality
together
Two forms of Surrealism:
Biomorphic (interested in life forms): Joan
Miro
Naturalistic (recognizable scenes of
nightmare or dream images): Rene Magritte,
Salvador Dali
Dali, The Crucifixion, 1958.
5. Two Forms of Surrealism
Biomorphic or Abstract Surrealism Naturalistic or Illusionistic
(Miro, Masson, Matta) Surrealism (Dali, Tanguy, Magritte)
• Automatism – “dictation of thoughts • Recognizable scenes and objects
without control of the mind” that are taken out of natural context,
• Abstraction distorted and combined in a fantastic
• Originated from the experiments in dreamlike way.
chance and automatism carried on by • Sources: Henri Rousseau, Chagall,
Dadaists and Surrealist writers. Ensor, de Chirico, the Romantics
6. SURREALISM
A style of art and literature developed principally in
the 20th century, in which fantastic visual imagery
from the subconscious mind is used with no
intention of making the artwork logically
comprehensible.
Involves fantasy & dreams
Is illogical
Stresses the subconscious
Automatism – to allow your subconscious mind to
take over in your art.
Demented sense of humor
1924 – 1950s (between World Wars I & II)
Europe (especially France and Spain)
Founded in 1924 by poet and critic Andre Breton
who published The Surrealist Manifesto: join the
world of fantasy to the everyday rational world in
“an absolute reality, a surreality.” Breton adapted
the theories of Sigmund Freud- dream analysis the
unconscious is the wellspring of the imagination.
Magritte, Time Transfixed, 1938.
7. Rene Magritte
(1898-1967)
Mother committed suicide
when Magritte was 14
Known for placing realistic
objects together in absurd
combinations
Rene Magritte, The Son of Man, 1964.
15. Salvador Dali
At the young age of 10, Dalí first
began painting
Dalí embraced all the science of
painting as a way to study the
psyche through subconscious
images.
He called this process the
Paranoiac Critical Method. As
any paranoiac, the artist should
allow these images to reach the
conscience, and then do what the
paranoiac cannot do: Freeze
them on canvas to give
consciousness the opportunity to
comprehend their meaning.
Dies of heart failure in 1989
16. The images of Salvador
Dali are very realistically
rendered. He was a
superb draftsman and
used that ability to create
a dreamlike or
nightmarish reality of his
own.
This image called Soft
Boiled Beans was also
said to be his premonition
about the Spanish Civil
War.
Dali, Soft Boiled Beans, 1936.
17. Decay and death are
symbolized by a dead
tree and a strange sea
monster decomposing
The limp watch indicates
that someone has the
power to twist time as he
or she sees fit.
Bottom Line: in time,
everything will die and
decay except time itself
Dali, The Persistence Of Memory, 1931.
26. Joan Miro
Organic forms that expand and
contract visually
Used automatism - planned accidents
Element of hallucination
Very abstract, almost child-like images
Combination of unconscious and
conscious image-making
Miro, Le Petit Rose, 1933
27. Joan Miró, A Dew Drop Falling from a Bird's Wing Wakes Rosalie,
who Has Been Asleep in the Shadow of a Spider's Web. 1939.
44. Apocalyptic Digital
Collage
Collect 15 images of interesting What to do with these pictures?
textures or landscapes.
• Eventually we are going to use • Create a folder in you’re my
these textures to build a landscape, Documents called Surrealist Project.
Ex. Tire treads, sand dunes, bricks, •When you find all 15 images, save
leaves, rocks, lightning, lava, them to your surrealist folder.
tornados, etc. • Open a new document named
Apocalyptic Surrealist Collage.
• A landscape is a picture of a place. • Select areas you like from the
pictures using a selection tool.
• You need to find pictures that will • Copy and paste, drag or open these
eventually make a sky and a ground. images into the empty document.
• Arrange, crop, erase, warp these
images to make your landscape.
• Fill all the space.
45. Requirements for
Collage
Requirements What to look for
• Minimum 10 pictures needed to
come together to make the collage. •Different Textures
• all pieces must fit together to make
one picture. • Different Objects
• Not a collection of squares of
pictures put together. • Different Landscapes
• Must be a standard size 8 ½ x 10
inch document. • Apocalyptic Symbols
• You need a horizon line.
