By
Fidencio Davalos,
ART 110: Art Appreciation
Surrealism
Surrealism is a period in art history when artists created dreamlike paintings filled with mysterious objects or familiar objects that have been oddly changed in ways that one would not see in reality (Kleiner, F., 2000). It is a style of art, where objects are realistically painted. The art looks real with light shadows, and details, but the way they are arranged or the way their shape is altered makes them look dreamlike, and therefore, beyond real (Kleiner, F., 2000).
Roots of Surrealism
The Surrealist movement started in France in the 1920’s. According to my research, its roots were found in Dada, but it was less violent and more artistically based. Surrealism was first the work of poets and writers (Diehl, G., 1986). The French poet, André Brenton, is known as the “Pope of Surrealism.” Brenton wrote the Surrealist Manifesto to describe how he wanted to combine the conscious and subconscious into a new “absolute reality” (Diehl, G., 1986). He first used the word surrealism to describe work found to be a, “fusion of elements of fantasy with elements of the modern world to form a kind of superior reality.” He also described it as “spontaneous writing” (Diehl, G., 1986). The first exhibition of surrealist painting was held in 1925, but its ideas were rejected in Europe (Diehl, G., 1986). Brenton set up an International Exhibition of Surrealism in New York, which then took the place of Paris as the center of the Surrealist movement. Soon surrealist ideas were given new life and became an influence over young artists in the United Sates and Mexico. The ideas of Surrealism were bold and new to the art world (Diehl, G., 1986).
Definition of Surrealism
Surrealism is defined as “Psychic automatism in its pure state by which we propose to express- verbally, in writing, or in any other manner- the real process of thought. The