Surrealism

by Emily Hathcock

"Surrealism does not allow those who devote themselves to it to forsake it whenever they like. There is every reason to believe that it acts on the mind very much as drugs do; like drugs, it creates a certain state of need and can push man to frightful revolts."
~André Breton

• A style of art and literature developed principally in the 20th century, stressing the subconscious or nonrational significance of imagery arrived at by automatism or the exploitation of chance effects, unexpected juxtapositions, etc.
• The first Surrealist manifesto, written by the French writer André Breton in 1924 and released to the public 1925, defines Surrealism as:
• Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express -- verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner -- the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by the thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.
• The Surrealist Manifesto text includes numerous examples of the applications of Surrealism to poetry and literature, but makes it clear that the tenets of Surrealism can be applied in any circumstance of life, and is not merely restricted to the artistic realm. The importance of the dream as a reservoir of Surrealist inspiration is also highlighted.
• Surrealists sought to express themselves through their subconscious. Surrealist visual artists sought to expose psychological truth by stripping ordinary objects of their normal significance, in order to create a compelling image that was beyond ordinary formal organization, to evoke empathy from the viewer.

Origins:

• Developed out of Dadaism in the early 1920s, the movement was begun primarily in Europe, centered in Paris, and attracted many of the members of the Dada community. Influenced by the psychoanalytical work of Freud and Jung, there are similarities between the Surrealist movement and the Symbolist movement of the late 19th century.
• Freud's work with free association, dream analysis and the hidden unconscious was of the utmost importance to the Surrealists in developing methods to liberate imagination. However, they embraced unconventional behavior, while rejecting the idea of an underlying madness or darkness of the mind.
• Later the idiosyncratic Salvador Dalí explained it as: "There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad."
• The group aimed to revolutionize human experience, including its personal, cultural, social, and political aspects, by freeing people from what they saw as false rationality, and restrictive customs and structures.
• Breton proclaimed, the true aim of Surrealism is "long live the social revolution, and it alone!" - To this goal, at various times surrealists aligned with communism and anarchism.
• 1925 - La Peinture Surrealiste - The first Surrealist exhibition at Gallerie Pierre in Paris.
• Displayed works by Masson, Man Ray, Klee, Miró, and others.
• The show confirmed that Surrealism had a component in the visual arts
• There is no clear consensus about the end of Surrealism, or if there is an end, of the Surrealist movement. Some art historians suggest that WWII effectively disbanded the movement.
• However, art historian Sarane Alexandrian (1970) states, "the death of André Breton in 1966 marked the end of Surrealism as an organized movement."
• There have also been attempts to tie the obituary of the movement to the 1989 death of Salvador Dalí.

Place in Literature

• Automatist writing: writing without thinking and without censoring thoughts
• The first Surrealist work, according to leader Breton, was Magnetic Fields. It contained automatist works and accounts of dreams. The magazine and the portfolio both showed their disdain for literal meanings given to objects and focused rather on the undertones, the poetic undercurrents present. Not only did they give emphasis to the poetic undercurrents, but also to the connotations and the overtones that "exist in ambiguous relationships to the visual images."
• Because Surrealist writers seldom, if ever, appear to organize their thoughts and the images they present, some people find much of their work difficult to read and understand.

Examples of Surrealism

• Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory
• historically significant painting in Surrealism, an icon within the genre.
• expresses the space or the gap between the real life and the imaginary gap very well.
• illustrates a style of Surrealism that could not be conveyed in words
• Paul Éluard, Proverb
• Free flow of thought to establish a rapport with the subconscious mind of readers.
• “Elephants are contagious”

Works Cited