“Dali
Atomicus,”
Philippe
Halsman,
1948
SURREALISM
“dreamlike, unreal, bizarre or irrational”
• Have you ever had one of those recurring dreams, or dreams
so vivid that you awoke wondering if what just happened was
real?
• Have you ever experienced déjà vu??
• Do you daydream???
• SURREALISTS used this type of SUBCONSCIOUS
THOUGHT to INSPIRE their art.
• SUBCONSCIOUS
– “Existing in the mind
but not immediately
• CONSCIOUS controlled.”
– “Controlled thoughts” – “Partial awareness.”
– “Total awareness”
• Surrealism is about the
liberation of the
imagination from what
most people believe is
normal and reasonable.
• Instead of trying to show
the real world, Surrealists
create fantasies. These
creations are based on
dreamlike ideas that
begin in the artist’s
subconscious thoughts.
Surrealism began:
• As a Revolutionary Movement.
• It was started by the Poet Andre Breton who
experimented with:
– Automatic writing
• “spontaneously writing without censoring their
thoughts—and published the "automatic" writings,
as well as accounts of dreams, in Littérature.”
Salvador Dali
• Salvado Dali, the most
famous Surrealist
artist, told everyone he
received messages
from the other world
through the ends of his
moustache!
Analyze and Describe…
• What words would you use to describe the
Dali paintings in the next three slides?
Three Young Surrealist Women Holding in Their Hands the Skins of an Orchestra, 1936
The Persistence of Memory (Soft Watches), 1931
Soft Construction with Boiled Beans:
Premonition of Civil War, 1936, Oil on Canvas
Is this painting
realistic?
• In what ways?
• What is odd about the
painting?
Time Transfixed, 1938
Rene Magritte
Is this painting
by Rene
Magritte
realistic?
The Son of Man,
oil painting, 1964
How did Surrealism come about?
It started with DADA
• World War I caused the death of over 37 million
people and billions of dollars in damages. A whole
generation of people had new physical and
psychological scars because of this.
• A search for a new truth rejecting traditional European
beliefs which were thought to have caused the war had
begun.
• An Anti-war, Anti-Art Movement, DADA resulted.
• How does this connect to you?
Dada: “Art means nothing”
• To Dadaists, the art of children, insane
people and “primitive” cultures was just as
important as the so called Great Art of
Western civilizations.
=
A Child’s
Mona Lisa,
1503–1505/1507
Drawing Leonardo Da Vinci
Do you Agree
or Disagree
with the
Dadaists?
• How should art be
valued?
Cut with the Kitchen Knife,
1919, Hannah Hoch
New ways of Thinking!
Mona Lisa,
1503–1505/1507
Leonardo Da Vinci
=
Bicycle Wheel (Ready-made)
1913, Marcel Duchamp
• DADA challenged what was acceptable art and
rejected the established value system of art.
Abstract Art: Focused on expressing
thoughts and feelings without clear
representational images.
Composition VIII,
Wassily Kandinsky
1923
The
Metamorphosis
of Narcissus,
1937,
Oil on Canvas,
Salvador Dali
Surrealists
• Found inspiration in the writings of Sigmund Freud and
Carl Jung, the founders of modern psychiatry.
• Freud and other therapists
used inkblots to delve into
the subconscious minds of
their patients to reveal
things about them. Each
patient saw something
different. Surrealists were
influenced by ideas like
this.
• What do you see?
• Surrealist paintings are usually very
technically realistic. Their subjects are
strange, poetic, or bizarre.
• Certain types of images appear frequently in
Surreal art. They follow with the next slide
and define the EIGHT MAIN
SURREALIST CONVENTIONS.
THE EIGHT MAIN
SURREALIST
CONVENTIONS
1. Morphs:
Transformations
from one thing to
another.
The Rape,
1934, Rene Magritte
2. Distortion of Scale:
Giving disproportionate size to
something (in relation to something else)
Sleep
1937, oil on
canvas,
Salvador Dali
3. Floating
Objects:
Objects that
float freely in
space.
Rose Meditative, 1958
Salvador Dali
4. Dislocation:
the act of being
out of place.
Time Transfixed, 1938
Rene Magritte
5.
Transparency:
the quality of
being see-
through.
La Condition humaine,
1933, Rene Magritte
6. Juxtaposition: putting unlike
things together to provoke comparison.
• The Surrealists hoped
Juxtaposition would
suggest new meaning
for familiar images,
like in a dream.
Lobster Telephone, 1936, Surrealist Object,
Salvador Dali
7. Distortion (of Shape):
Alteration of the original shape.
The Persistence of Memory (Soft Watches), 1930
8. Texture Switches: Using an
unexpected texture.
Object, 1936, Meret Oppenheim
• Logical impossiblities
were also
characteristic of
Surrealist art.
• Incongruities, such as
this, were used to
shock the viewer.
La Reproduction Interdite (English: Not to be Reproduced), 1937
Rene Magritte
The Surrealists loved to play with
perception through visuals.
Salvador Dali
Optical
Illusions were
also a device
used by
Surrealists.
El cheque en blanco
(1965), Rene Magritte
Distortion of Scale
Photography Example
For Further Study:
Films
Un Chien Andalou, 1926 (Salvador Dali co-
wrote this film.)*
Films by David Lynch including:
Eraserhead (1977)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Films by Michael Gondry including:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless
Mind (2004)
The Science of Sleep (2006)
Films by Terry Gilliam including:
Brazil (1985)
The Imaginarium of Dr.
Parnassus (2009)
•Available on Netflix via Instant Download
