History

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/surrealism.htm

 

Surrealism has found its way in 1924 in Paris, by poet André Breton who has published a manifest of Surrealism, which was inspired by the man Sigmund Freud who wrote the book ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’. He has said that there is an unconscious mind where we keep our memories and basic instincts. Breton believed that we could use art and literature to support the unconscious mind. Many artists agreed with him like Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Meritt Oppenheim, Joan Miro, Dorothea Tanning, Yves Tanguy, Lee Miller, Rene Magritte and claude clahun. It is said that surrealism is influenced by the desire of love because it was the key to understanding a human being.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lovers- Rene Magritte                                

 

 

 

 

                                                                                     Men shall know nothing about this – Max Ernst

 

 Surrealists liked to put objects together, which would normally not be together to make something playful but also disturbing this is in order to stimulate the unconscious mind.  There were two types of surrealist painting, the visual painting which uses Freudian symbols like tables, clouds etc.  The other way is as called automatism; this is where free association comes to place to reveal the unconscious mind.

                                                                                                                  Celebes – Max Ernst

The lobster telephone – Salvador Dali                                 The persistence of memory – Salvador Dali    

 

There were of course also surrealist films, a famous one is ‘un chien andelou’ made in 1928 by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali. This is because the audiences’ attention is grabbed in a famous scene where, a woman's eye is slit open, juxtaposed with a similarly shaped cloud moving past the moon in the same direction as the knife through the eye.

 

Here is the full short film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCl_8522FF0

 

Some people didn’t like surrealism; Freud didn’t like it. He made the book ‘The interpretation of Dreams’ to make people understand themselves better. He thought that artists should create something from the conscious mind and not use Freudian symbols. Nevertheless surrealism continues with a huge influence on culture and society today. Breton has said that “Surrealism is not just an art movement; it’s a way of thinking, a way of life, a way of transforming existence.”