Surrealism Essay Research Paper In 1924 a

Surrealism Essay, Research Paper

In 1924 a French poet and critic Andre Breton published “The Surrealist Manifesto,” which lead as a starter to the surrealist movement. Nicolas Pioch, a famous art historian, maintains that “the surrealist movement represented a reaction against what its members saw as the destruction wrought by the rationalism that had guided European culture and politics in the past and that had culminated in the horrors of World War I. Surrealism was a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious realms of experience so completely that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in an absolute reality, a surreality ” (qtd. in Koshevoy 1). Surrealism brought new life to the art world between World War I and World War II.

“In The Surrealist Manifesto Breton suggested that rational thought was repressive to the powers of creativity and imagination and thus inimical to artistic expression. An admirer of Sigmund Freud and his concept of the subconscious, Breton felt that contact with this hidden part of the mind could produce poetic truth”

(Surrealism 1). Andre Breton soon recognized the kinship between his literary aims and the artistic aims of certain painters fascinated by Freudian concepts. In 1925, with Breton s encouragement, the first group exhibition of surrealist painting took place in Paris. Among those were Joan Miro and Pablo Picasso (Surrealism 3).

Surrealism is a modern movement in visual art, literature and society, flourishing in Europe between World War I and World War II. It grew mostly out of the earlier dada movement. Surrealism affirmed the supremacy of the unconscious over the conscious, and preferred allegorical composition to the shallow imitation of nature. Dealing with the fantastic , every painting conjured up a dream world inhabited by unworldly mysterious figures, elongated objects, melting watches and unexplained shadows entering the field of vision (Cusimano, INTORDUCTION 2). In painting a sculpture surrealism is one of the leading influences of the twentieth century. Surrealists often employed abstract and fantastic shapes and forms, with a great variety of content and technique ( Surrealism, Microsoft Encarta 1).

Surrealism grew principally out of the earlier Dada movement, which before World War I produced works of anti-art that deliberately defied reason. Dada or Dadaism ( French, from dada, child s word for a horse) was a Nihilistic movement in the arts that flourished chiefly in France, Switzerland, and Germany from about 1916 to about 1920 and that was based on the principles of deliberate irrationality, anarchy, and cynicism and the rejection of laws of beauty and social organization (Buell 1). Dada was originated by Tzara, the German writer Hugo Ball, the Alsatian born artist Jean Arp, and other intellectuals living in Zurich, Switzerland ( Dadaism, Microsoft Encarta 1). Dadaism is a movement of art deeply involved with the political, intellectual, and social conditions of life. The movement is characterized by expressive forms and a metaphysical quality, but is still concentrated on the realities of life. Collage and montage are qualities of Dadaism, enhancing the sense of a magical or futuristic view of life. Irony and sarcasm are evident in this work, as are the juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated subject matter. One can see the importance of the contrast between light and dark, colors, perspective, and shape. The ultimate use of space is noticeable as well (Bryan and Bazemore 1).

Dadaism inspired surrealism and another, cubism. Cubism is a contemporary, highly formalistic movement which is characterized by the geometric representation of realistic objects or features. (Pioch 1). Cubism is a movement in modern art, especially painting, that was primarily concerned with abstract forms rather than lifelike representation. It began in Paris about 1908, reached its height by 1914, and developed further in the 1920 s. Cubism was a revolt against the sentimental and realistic traditional painting of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and against the emphasis on light and color effects and the lack of form characteristic of impressionism. It drew inspiration from tribal art, especially that of Africa and Oceania ( Cubism, Microsoft Encarta 1). The doctrines of the cubist school follow the dictum of the French postimpressionist Paul Cezanne. Everything in nature takes its form from the sphere, the cone, and the cylinder, says Cezanne (qtd. in Cubism, Microsoft Encarta 1). The most common type of cubism is an abstract and analytical approach to a subject, in which the artist determines and paints the basic geometric solids of which the subject is composed, in particular the cube or cone, or the basic planes that reveal the underlying geometric forms. In another type of cubist painting (synthetic cubism), views of an object from different angles, not simultaneously visible in life, are arranged into a unified composition. In neither type of cubism is there any attempt to reproduce in detail the appearance of natural objects (Panic Surrealism 2).

One of the most famous cubist painters is Pablo Picasso. Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, in Malaga, Spain, son of an artist, Jose Ruiz, and Maria Picasso. Rather than adopt the common name Ruiz, the young Picasso took the rarer name of his mother ( Biography 1). Picasso is probably t