CURIOUS VISIONS VI:

SURREALISM

Man Ray, Violon d’Ingres (Ingres’ violin), silver nitrate print with drawing in indian ink, 1924, 31 x 24cm

Ingres, Bather of Valpincon, 1808, Oil on canvas , 146 cm × 97 cm

Surrealism started as a literary movement, founded by the poet Andre Breton in 1924 in Paris. Many artists from the Dada movement went on to become Surrealists. Surrealism does not have a single style, but rather describes a certain philosophy which the group agreed to, more or less. Some artists were identified by the Surrealist group as ‘Surrealist’ even though they had had nothing to do with the group as such… the Surrealists ‘adopted’ them because they found their work inspirational. For instance, Giorgio De Chirico, shown here.

The Red Tower, oil on canvas, 73 x 100cm, 1913.

The disquieting muses, oil on canvas 107 x 76cm, originally 1914, self forgery 1947 >>>

Rene Magritte, (Belgian,1898-1967) The False Mirror, oil on canvas, 1928, 54 x 80cm

Neurologist Sigmund Freud’s ground- breaking ideas about the unconscious arrived at the turn of the 20th century. He taught that dreams held the key to our unconscious desires and feelings, which normally we ‘repress’ and are unaware of, as we find them unacceptable. Dreams are some kind of gateway to our deepest and truest selves. Freud believed sex was the driving force behind much of our lives, even if we are totally unaware of it.

Normally, we consider our eyes to be the way we get our information. If we can see it, we can more or less believe it. The Surrealists thought that our eyes mislead us, and there is some deeper truth within us which could not beseen with the eyes – or could be seen best by eyes shut (in a dream perhaps, or a trance of some kind. Eyes, vision, mirrors are often seen in Surrealist art for this reason.

These are both ‘Surrealist objects’. This weird juxtaposing of objects and elements is typical of Surrealist practice. It gives the viewer a jolt and sends your head off in places it otherwise may not go. It may also suggest odd connections which you may not normally consider. The Surrealists called this the ‘unexpected encounter’. Surrealists trawled through junk shops looking for odd combinations.

Victor Brauner, (Romania, 1903-1966) Loup-table (Wolf-table), table and fox parts, 1939-47

Joan Miro, (Spanish 1893-1983), Object, assemblage, 81 x 30 x 26, 1936

Techniques to harness the ‘inner reality’…Automatism is a technique we saw in Dada (Hans Arp) and it was used also in Surrealism. The idea is that our conscious, rational, thinking self – which censors what we think and say - is put on hold, and words are written or spoken, or lines drawn or painted, without allowing yourself to stop to think.

A trance-like or hypnotic state may be involved. (Editing of some sort may be done later.)This is a very different approach from say, Impressionism which was a more scientific observation of light and life; or Cubism, which again referenced the real world in a studied and careful manner. The aim was to get in touch with the unconscious which was a rich source of creativity and liberation.

Automatic drawing: Andre Masson, (French, 1896-1987), Battle of the fishes, chalk, charcoal, crayon and oil on paper, 1927, 48 x 60cm

This automatism would be used later by the Abstract Expressionists in USA.

Games of chance (as in Dada) were also used extensively by the Surrealist group.. Exquisite Corpse was a game where someone draws something or writes something, then folds over the paper and passes it to the next person, who can’t see what has been done, but must create something. Then they fold their bit over, and so on. The total sum of the image is a collaboration by the group who couldn’t see each others work

Andre Breton, Tristan Tzara, & Greta Knutson, Landscape: exquisite corpse, c. 1933, coloured pencil on paper, 24 x 31cm

Art making techniques

Frottage: drawing on a support ( a canvas or piece of paper), which is itself laying over a textured surface. Rubbing or drawing over the support brings the contours of the underneath surface through onto the canvas or paper. The idea behind this technique is that the artist cannot rationally control the outcome. Coincidence plays a part. Then something new could be created by these random markings. Sometimes these frottage images would be collaged together.

Max Ernst, (German, 1891 – 1976) The Fugitive, 1926, 26 x 42cm, image based on frottage,

Decalcomania

Sounds like a mental illness, right? Paint or ink is laid down on paper or canvas, orglass – and then it’s folded in half, or another piece of paper is placed upon it and squished so that the paint is transferred in ways that cannot be predicted. Then an image may be created from this blob or blot.

Oscar Dominguez, (French, 1906-1957), Untitled, decalcomania using gouache, 1936-7, 15 x 21cm

Rene Magritte, (Belgian,1898-1967) The treachery of images, oil on canvas, 1928-9, 58 x 78cm.

This is a different approach. In a way this image doesn’t seem at all incongruous or odd. Magritte’s use of text within the image is informing us. It’s like a kind of signpost, which is in fact what all writing is. It’s pointing out what is real. Possibly. Again, the idea is to confuse us, and shake us out of our day-to-day way of thinking about things.

Rene Magritte, (Belgian,1898-1967) The Lovers, 1928, oil on canvas, 54 x 73cm

Enshrouded faces were a common motif in Magritte’s art. When he was a boy, his mother committed suicide by drowning. He witnessed her body being fished from the water, her wet nightgown wrapped around her face. Possibly, this inspired a series of works in which Magritte obscured his subjects’ faces.

Art the Surrealists liked…

• Art of the insane;• Children’s art;• ‘Primitive’ art, especially that of

Oceania (Pacific islands) (but in a

different way from Picasso…)

New Guinea war hook, mid 20th Century, wood and pigments,66 x 32 x 9cm

Why would the Surrealists be Likely to be attracted to artcreated by these groups?

ResourcesMetropolitan Museum of Art Timeline Essay: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm

Guggenheim Museum online: http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/piece/?search=Surrealism&page=1&f=Movement&cr=7

Centre Pompidou: http://www.centrepompidou.fr/education/ressources/ens-surrealistart-en/ens-surrealistart-en.htm#origins

Miami Cade College: http://www.mdc.edu/wolfson/academic/ArtsLetters/art_philosophy/Humanities/Surrealism/Surrealism.htm

First Surrealist Manifesto, by Andre Breton 1924: http://wikilivres.info/wiki/Surrealist_ManifestoAutomatism: http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10947