SURREALISM - Causes, Artists, Sketch
SURREALISM - a movement that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, began in the early 1920s
Surrealism evolved out of the nihilistic Dada, most of whose members became Surrealists. However, Surrealism was less political and promoted a more positive outlook to art. It seeks to merge dream and reality to form artistic expression. Surrealists believed that WWI was caused by excessive rational thought materialistic values that were embraced by the upper classes. By rejecting what was considered 'bourgeois rationalism', it revolved against the constraints of reality and, by extension, the oppressiveness of rules in society. The movement was heavily influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis. Freud believed that people can only be cured of psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety by resurfacing the unconscious, releasing suppressed emotions and experiences, such as a forgotten childhood memory.
Many techniques were used to achieve this subconscious creativity, including dreams, hallucinations, and automatism. The usual rational approach to choosing images was rejected as untruthful and limiting.
Andre Breton introduced the movement in 1924 through a manifesto. He wanted to change the way people thought by reconciling the conscious and unconscious, and free mankind from the bourgeois rationalism that had caused nothing but corruption and war. Surrealists wanted to view art as mystical and mysterious.
KEY CHARACTERISTICS
- uses dream imagery, sought to create instinctive meanings the viewer would not need rational thought to understand
- uses juxtaposition to create irrationality
- painted illogical scenes with photographic precision (to further emphasise its absurdity)
- pushes the boundaries of what is socially acceptable to uncover the artist's true nature
- emphasis on the mysterious, mythological and irrational to make art ambiguous and strange
- willingness to express the most basic human desires such as sexuality, hunger, fear, dread, ecstacy etc.
- it is further divided into two: Naturalistic Surrealism which pursues dreams and creates represantational compositions, and Biomorphic Surrealism which uses automatic drawing and chance as a way to label the rational and overrated
GIORGIO DE CHIRICO
10 Jul 1888 - 20 Nov 1978
His best known works are produced in his metaphysical period between 1909 and 1910. At the start of this period, his subjects included empty Italian squares, but gradually he turned to cluttered storerooms. They may have been triggered by the homesickness he felt in Paris, or being raised in Greece as an Italian. His cityscapes evoke an eerie mood, with strangely shaped buildings, hidden faces, and disproportionate shadows. They create an air of menace.
RENÉ MAGRITTE
21 Nov 1898 - 15 Aug 1967
Magritte avoided the stylistic ideals of modern art, and instead depicted his images in an illustrative, deadpan manner to deliver a clear, concise image. His paintings are a paradox---they depict images that are beautiful in their clarity and simplicity, almost to the point where they seem normal, and yet provoke irrationality. The men in bowler hats, as well as portrayals of his wife and glimpses of his middle-class apartment, suggest an autobiographical flow to his works. They could also mean that Magritte often looked for the mysterious and irrational in his daily life.
ANDRÉ MASSON
4 Jan 1896 - 28 Oct 1987
Masson volunteered to join WWI to experience "the Wagnerian aspects of battle" as well as to feel the "ecstacy" of death. Which he did, when a bullet ripped into his chest and, unreached by stretchers, was left there as a passive spectator of the ongoing conflict. The psychic troubles from his wounds lasted his whole life, and he had to spend some years in hospitals and even padded cells. The war left him nervous with nightmares and insomnia, which became a great inspiration for his abstract surrealism works.
So I did two sketches because I suck at making decisions.
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