Week 2 (14th July 2017): What Is Surrealism?

        Examples of Surrealism 

14th July 2017

So what is Surrealism?Surrealism began in the early 1920's as a cultural movement and is best known for its visual artworks and writings.It was also founded in France and Belgium.Unnerving,illogical scenes with photographic precision painted by several artists,created strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself.The aim was to "resolve previous opposing conditions of dreams and reality into an absolute reality.Surrealism works feature the element of surprise and unexpected things.However,a lot of Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of a philosophical movement with the works of being an artifact.

Surrealism was founded by the poet Andre Breton in Paris in 1924,Surrealism was an artistic and literary way to show movement.It proposed that the Enlightenment,the influential during the 17th and 18th century intellectual movement that championed reason and individualism had suppressed the superior qualities of the irrational,unconscious mind.The goal for Surrealism was to liberate thought,language,and human experience from the oppressive boundaries of rationalism.Breton was well-versed in the psychoanalytical writings of Sigmund Freud from his studies of medicine and psychiatry.He was particularly interested in the idea of an unconscious mind which produced dreams was the source of artistic creativity.A devoted Marxist,Breton also intended Surrealism to be a revolutionary movement capable of unleashing the minds of the masses from the rational order of society.But how could they achieve this liberation of the human mind?

During World War 1,Surrealism was developed out of the Dada activities and Paris was the most important center of the movement.The movement spread around the globe since the 1920's.Eventually affecting visual arts,literature,film and music of many other countries and languages,as well as political thought and practice,philosophy,and social theory.By 1937, however, most of the major figures in Surrealism had been forced to leave Europe to escape Nazi persecution. Max Ernst’s Europe After the Rain II (1940–42) reflects this fraught moment with a post-apocalyptic vision created at the height of World War II. A partially abstract work formed by “decalcomania”a technique that entailed painting on glass, then pressing that painted glass to the canvas to allow chance elements to remain Europe After the Rain suggests bombed-out buildings, the corpses of humans and animals, and eroded geological formations in the aftermath of a great cataclysm.

The term 'surrealist' was founded in March 1917 by a letter to Paul Dermee by Guillaume Apollinaire which wrote[Translated to English] "All things considered,I think in fact is is better to adopt surrealism than supernaturalism,which I first used".The term were used by Apollinaire in his program notes for the premiered Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes,Parade on the 18th of May 1917.The one-act scenario by Jean Cocteau in Parade was performed with music by Erik Satie.

                                                             The Icons of Surrealism