Compare And Contrast Realism And Surrealism

Running Head: Discussion on Realism and Surrealism

Discussion on Realism and Surrealism
William Thigpen
Western Governors University
Discussion on Realism and Surrealism

Realism and Surrealism were very similar and dissimilar at the same time. In realism the artist wanted to keep truth and accuracy to what they were depicting. In surrealism, the artists wanted to take the truth and a new dimension to it, to make it more dream like. During the realism period the world was going through a great change. The industrial revolution was just ending, more and more people where moving from farms and the countryside to the cities during a period of great urbanization. Surrealism took off during the interwar years between World War I and
Surrealism came about mostly during the inter war years between World War I and World War II. This was a time of great change especially in Europe while the individual countries were trying to recover from the war that devastated the land. Most European countries saw a large economic boom after the war. Quality of life for many Europeans improved except for Germans who were struggling to pay the large debts and penalties from the cost of the war. In the United States it was the Roaring Twenties, which was also a time of great economic and social growth. Surrealism was affected by the Great Depression which was reflected in some of their paintings which can be seen in paintings by Stella Snead and Joan Miro (Unknown, Surrealism (c. 1921 CE - 1942 CE),
Also, both paintings focus on a realistic portrait of a man. In Millet’s case it is a man hard at work and in Magritte’s case which is described as a self portrait shows a man in a normal looking business suit with a normal looking apple obscuring his face. The major difference between the two is Millet wants people to take the painting at face value, seeing a farmer hard at work to highlight how the peasants in the rural areas lived and worked. For Magritte besides the fantastical element of the apple floating in front of the man’s face the, Magritte wants people to use their imagination to see what is behind the apple.
Surrealism has influence still seen today in the modern art. Many artists today still use elements of surrealism; sculptor Richard Heinrich used surrealism in his steel sculptor Double and artist Catalina Chervin used these same elements in her Retrato portrait ( (Prinsloo, 2014). Surrealism is not just seen in artwork today, its elements can be seen in movies, plays, and fashion