A definition of Surrealism

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Dear Readers!

Just for the sake of it, I'm hereby giving you a general definition of Surrealism.

André Masson, Automatic drawing 1924

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. The aim was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality." Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself.

Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur; however, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Leader André Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was above all a revolutionary movement.

The burning Girafe, Dali

Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities during World War I and the most important center of the movement was Paris. From the 1920s onward, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film, and music of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, philosophy, and social theory.

Breton wrote the manifesto of 1924 that defines the purposes of the group. He included citations of the influences on Surrealism, examples of Surrealist works and discussion of Surrealist automatism. He defined Surrealism as:

René Magritte, This is not a pipe, 1928-1929

He defined Surrealism as:Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation.
Encyclopedia: Surrealism. Philosophy. Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations, in the omnipotence of dream, in the disinterested play of thought. It tends to ruin once and for all other psychic mechanisms and to substitute itself for them in solving all the principal problems of life

Salvador Dali, The persistence of memory, 1931

Soon more visual artists became involved, including Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, Joan Miro, Francis Picabia, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel, Meret Oppenheim, Toyen, Kasuke Yamamoto and later after the second world war: Enrico Donati. Though Breton admired Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp and courted them to join the movement, they remained peripheral.
More writers also joined, including former Dadaist Tristan Tzara, René Char and Georges Sadoul.
In 1925 an autonomous Surrealist group formed in Brussels. The group included the musician, poet, and artist E.L.T. Mesens, painter and writer René Magritte, Paul Nougé, Marcel Lecomte and André Souris.

Max Ernst, L'Ange du Foyeur

Source: Wikipedia.com

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