Surrealism

Surrealism

Surrealism was a movement which began in the 1920`s of writers and artists (Salvator Daliand Rene Magritte) who experimented with ways of unleashing the subconscious imagination. 

Influenced by the writings of psychologist Sigmund Freud, the literary, intellectual and artistic movements called Surrealism sought a revolution against the constraints of the national mind, and by extension, the rules of a society they saw as oppressive. Freud and other psychoanalysts used a variety of techniques to bring to the surface the subconscious thoughts of their patients. The surrealists borrowed many of the same techniques to stimulate their writing and art, with the belief that the creativity that came from deep within a person`s subconscious could be more powerful and authentic than any product of conscious thought.

Sigmund Freud`s Theory


1.   Dreams : accessing the subconscious (unconscious), playful yet sometime the disturbing.

Freud used the analogy of an iceberg to describe the three levels of the mind.On the surface is consciousness, which consists of those thoughts that are the focus of our attention now, and this is seen as the tip of the iceberg. The preconscious consists of all which can be retrieved from memory. The third and most significant region is the unconscious. Here lie the processes that are the real cause of most behaviour. Like an iceberg, the most important part of the mind is the part you cannot see.

2.  Automatism:  in art automatism usually refers to the accessing of materials from the subconscious or unconscious mind as part of the creative process.  Automatism plays a role in Surrealists techniques such as spontaneous or automatic writing, painting, and drawing ; free association of images and words and collaborative creation though games like Exquisite Corpse. 

Salvador Dali

 He was a prominent Spanish surrealist painter. Dalí was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. Dalí's expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media. Dalí was highly imaginative, and also enjoyed indulging in unusual and grandiose behavior. His eccentric manner and attention-grabbing public actions sometimes drew more attention than his artwork, to the dismay of those who held his work in high esteem, and to the irritation of his critics.

The Object

Andre Breton
Many surrealist artists, especially in the 1930s, began arranging objects in combinations that challenged reason and summoned subconscious and poetic associations. The most easily obtained materials were found objects, or items cheaply purchased at flea markets. The mundane, mostly mass- produced objects found new resonances when arranged in unprecedented and provocative configurations. Surrealist leader Andre Breton believed that this new form of sculpture, called assemblage, had the power the puncture the thin veneer of reality, and the tap into the subconscious mind. As Breton proclaimed,  " to aid the systematic derangement of all the senses... it is my opinion that we must not hesitate to bewilder sensation... "

Man Ray
Indestructible object

Joseph Cornell
Taglioni's Jewel Casket

Meret Oppenheim
Object

The Body

Many surrealists produced objects and images with an insistently erotic dimension. This was driven , in part, by their interest in  Freudian psychology and so called 'primitive' non-Western art, which they presumed to be untainted by modernist rationalism. Though these explorations of the human figure had a long tradition in the history of art, Surrealists went further, breaking, taboos and shocking viewers in their depiction of mutilated, dismembered or distorted bodies.
In the 1930s, such visions may have had particular resonance given the still-pervasive sight of World War 1 veterans- many left limbless or using prosthetics and the specter of the second World War on the horizon. 

Salvador Dali
Retrospective Bust of a Woman

Renee Magritte
The Lovers

Hans Bellmer
Plate from La Poupee

The Landscape
Landscapes- images of natural scenery- remained a popular subject at the height of the Surrealist movement in the 1920s. In the decades preceding Surrealism, the genre had undergone radical transformations as artists broke free from straight representational landscapes, using non-naturalistic colours and experimental paint applications. Despite these innovations, most painters continued to paint from the natural world. 

Surrealist landscape tapped into a different source for imagery: the subconscious mind. The landscapes shown here reflect the uncanny, sometimes elusive imagery of dreams, myth and fantasy. At time lacking recognizable geological elements such as mountains, hills or vistas, these works confound traditional expectations of the landscape genre, and propose that interior world of the of the psyche is as complex and ripe for exploration as the world beyond our bodies.

Salvador Dali
The persistence of  memory

Max Ernest
Two children are threatened by a nightingale

Joan Miro
The Hunter

Cubism

Cubism 

(early twentieth century)

Cubism was one of the first truly modern movements to emerge in art. It evolved during a period of heroic and rapid innovation between Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

The Cubism has been described as having two stages:

1. Analytic Cubism: The term analytical cubism describes the early phase of cubism, generally considered to run from 1908–12. Analytic Cubism staged modern art`s most radical break with traditional models of representation. It is termed analytical cubism because of its structured dissection of the subject, viewpoint-by-viewpoint, resulting in a fragmentary image of multiple viewpoints and overlapping planes. Other distinguishing features of analytical cubism were a simplified palette of colours, so the viewer was not distracted from the structure of the form, and the density of the image at the centre of the canvas. Over time, Picasso and Braque also moved towards open form- they pieced the bodies of their figures, let the space flow through them, and blended background into foreground.  Georges Braque
   Glass on a Table, Pablo Picasso
   Seated Nude 

   

    Georges BraqueGlass on a Table (1909-10)Oil on Canvas

 Pablo Picasso
Seated Nude (1909-10)
Oil on canvas

     2.  Synthetic Cubism: is the later phase of cubism, generally considered to run from about 1912 to 1914, characterised by simpler shapes and brighter colours. Synthetic cubism began when the artists started adding textures and patterns to their paintings, experimenting with collage using newspaper print and patterned paper. Analytical cubism was about breaking down an object (like a bottle) viewpoint-by-viewpoint, into a fragmentary image; whereas synthetic cubism was about flattening out the image and sweeping away the last traces of allusion to three-dimensional space. 

Picasso’s papier collés are a good example of synthetic cubism. 

Pablo Picasso
Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper 1913
Collage and pen and ink on blue paper

Pablo Picasso
Bowl of Fruit, Violin and Bottle 1914
Oil on canvas

Juan Gris
The Sunblind 1914
Gouache, collage, chalk and charcoal on canvas

Cubism paved the way for geometric abstract art by putting an entirely new emphasis on the unity between the depicted scene in a picture ans the surface of the canvas. 

Pablo Picasso

Picasso  was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France. Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. His work is often categorized into periods. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1904–1906), the African-influenced Period (1907–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919), also referred to as the Crystal period.

Exceptionally prolific throughout the course of his long life, Picasso achieved universal renown and immense fortune for his revolutionary artistic accomplishments, and became one of the best-known figures in 20th-century art. 

Between 1915 and 1917, Picasso began a series of paintings depicting highly geometric and minimalist Cubist objects, consisting of either a pipe, a guitar or a glass, with an occasional element of collage.

Pablo Picasso
The Mandolin Player (1911)

Pablo Picasso
Guernica (1937)

Guernica is a mural-sized oil painting on canvas. The painting, which uses a palette of gray, black, and white, is known as one of the most moving and powerful anti-war paintings in history. The large mural shows the suffering of people, animals, and buildings wrenched by violence and chaos. Upon completion, Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed, and believed to have helped bring worldwide attention to the Spanish Civil War.

Picasso
Head of a woman ( Fernande) (1909)

Juen Gris

He worked in close contact with Braque and Picasso since 1911. By 1914, he had developed collage techniques in which he pasted elements from newspapers and magazines into deconstructed, abstract scenes. Sometimes he would show actual collages and sometimes paintings oh his collages. Gris is known for his ability to create tension between horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. In Fantomas, Gris rended in oil paint a tabletop full of periodicals, including the popular crime serial, Fantomas. He was the first Cubist to introduce light and colour into his works, inspiring Picasso and Braque`s later Synthetic Cubism.

Juen Gris
Fantomas (1915)

Fantomas (poster)
One of the most popular characters in the history of French crime fiction

Georges Braque

He was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most important contributions to the history of art were in his alliance with Fauvism from 1906, and the role he played in the development of Cubism. Braque’s work between 1908 and 1912 is closely associated with that of his colleague Pablo Picasso. Their respective Cubist works were indistinguishable for many years, yet the quiet nature of Braque was partially eclipsed by the fame and notoriety of Picasso.

Braque’s interest in collecting musical instruments is reflected in this painting of a small lute called a mandora. Its fragmented style suggests a sense of rhythm and acoustic reverberation that matches the musical subject. Braque explained that he liked to include instruments in his cubist works, ‘in the first place because I was surrounded by them, and secondly because their plasticity, their volumes, related to my particular concept of still life’.

Georges Braque
Mandora (1909-10)
Oil on canvas