20th Design Century

Surrealism

           Surrealism is a style in which fantastical visual imagery from the subconscious mind is used with no intention of making the work logically comprehensible. Founded by Andre Breton in 1924, it was a primarily European movement that attracted many members of the chaotic Dada movement. It was similar in some elements to the mystical 19th-century Symbolist movement, but was deeply influenced by the psychoanalytic work of Freud and Jung.

            Surrealism originated in the late 1910's and early 20's as a literary movement that experimented with a new mode of expression called automatic writing, or automatism, which sought to release the unbridled imagination of the subconscious. Officially consecrated in Paris in 1924 with the publication of the Manifesto of Surrealism by the poet and critic André Breton (1896–1966), Surrealism became an international intellectual and political movement. Breton, a trained psychiatrist, along with French poets Louis Aragon (1897–1982), Paul Éluard (1895–1952), and Philippe Soupault (1897–1990), were influenced by the psychological theories and dream studies of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) and the political ideas of Karl Marx (1818–1883). Using Freudian methods of free association, their poetry and prose drew upon the private world of the mind, traditionally restricted by reason and societal limitations, to produce surprising, unexpected imagery. The cerebral and irrational tenets of Surrealism find their ancestry in the clever and whimsical disregard for tradition fostered by Dadaism a decade earlier.

An image of a Surrealism art by one of the famous Surrealist :


'The Persistence of Memory'

'Dali claimed (like most surrealists) that his images were “dream sequences” or inspired by his subconscious.'












                                                                                                                                 Salvador Dali


The Impact of Surrealism

Surrealism is known as a cultural movement originated in the early-1920s.  The movement became recognized all around the globe and affected various media, including the visual arts, literature, film, and music, political thought and philosophy.

Surrealism movies include Entr'acte (René Clair,1924), La Coquille et le clergyman (Germaine Dulac, 1928), Un chien andalou and L'Âge d'Or (Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí), L'Étoile de mer (Man Ray, 1928), by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, 1930), Le sang d'un poète (Jean Cocteau, 1930). Surrealism influence is present in a number of films. Such filmmaker as David Lynch due to some aspects of many of his films is also regarded as a Surrealist. Surrealism in movies is recognized due to the sudden emergence of the uncanny into the "normal" which may or may not be further explored in the rest of the film.

Surrealism has greatly impacted many fields. Surrealism in art is a creative act of effort to liberate imagination. The Surrealism style dynamic and as dialectic in its thought, is present in the works of the obscure poet Samuel Greenberg and the hobo writer and humourist T-Bone Slim. Clark Ashton Smith, Montague Summers, Fantomas, The Residents, Bugs Bunny, comic strips are also referred to the style. Surrealism has had an impact on radical and revolutionary politics, both directly and indirectly (the New Left of the 1960s and 1970s and the French revolt of May 1968).

Originated at the beginning of the 20th century Surrealism movement goes on developing. These days a lot of artists worldwide created their works being influenced the ideas and techniques of Surrealism style. The movement has transformed into many other artistic styles and nowadays there are lots of painters whose works can be referred to this very style.

reference   :

(2012) The metropolitan museum of art. [Online]. Available from : http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/surr/hd_surr.htm [Accessed 29 August 2014]

Reflection :

From Surrealism, i understand that it is about creating arts which is influenced from the past or the current issues by subconsciousness idea and view. For now, most arts and artists are still up to the concepts o surrealism in a different way of design. These impacts to the society too by the messages from each and every art of surrealism. Some people in certain place of a specific country accepted surrealism as in a positive point, but as same as some on the negative point.