Painting
II
Leslie
Robison
Surrealism
Mary
Ross
Surrealism appeared in 1910-1920’s
as a new mode of expression called automatic writing or automatism which was to
unlock the subconscious. It became an
international, intellectual, and
political movement. Andre Breton was one
of the pioneers of the movement, who was influenced by the studies of Sigmund
Freud and the politics of Karl Marx. Looking
beyond traditional reason and societal limits, and using free association, the
results produced the unexpected in imagery.
This movement was a disregard for the past tradition of Dadaism.
Surrealists did not align themselves
with visual artists because they believed that the structured style was opposed
to their belief of the free spirit in their methods of free association and
automatism.
The first prominent surrealists were
Max Ernst, Andre Masson, Joan Miro and Man Ray.
Their work used free association, was flowing, with curving continuous
lines, with strange and symbolic figures.
Ernst experimented with the process
of decalcomania and grattage.
Decalcomania is a process of pressing a sheet of paper into a painted
surface and peeling it off. Grattage is
the process of scraping pigment across a canvas that is laid on top of a
textured surface. With the use of these
techniques, Ernst produced works which typified the themes of violence and
annihilation found in Surrealist art, especially in his work The Barbarians.
Illusionistic Surrealism appeared
when Rene Magritte painted erotic and explicit objects in dreamlike
surroundings. Surrealist artists that
followed in a similar erotic style were Dali, Delvaux and Tanguy.
Salvador Dali expanded on the dream
imagery with his own erotically charged, hallucinatory visions. He used Freudian symbols to represent his
overwhelming sexual desire. Dali found
praise from Andre Breton with his representations of the unconscious in his
work, Second Manifesto of Surrealism. The two became partners in a
Surrealist-oriented publication founded in Paris called the Minotaure.
With the onset of World War II the
Surrealist movement dissolved. Most of
the prominent artists of Surrealism left Europe and headed for New York. A revival of the movement in the U.S. was
featured by Peggy Gugenheim’s Gallery, Art
of This Century, and the Julien Levy Gallery. Breton organized the Fourth International
Surrealist Exhibition in Mexico City and included Freda Kahlo and Diego
Rivera. Although, they never actually
became members of the movement.
The Surrealism movement with its
surprising imagery, symbolism, refined painting techniques and disdain for
convention, influenced future generations of artists, notably Joseph Cornell
and Arshile Gorky. Gorky’s work formed a
continuum between Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.
In conclusion, I am back to the link
between my choice of abstract painting in forms and bright colors, and the link
with Abstract Expressionism and Abstract Modernism and my research in completed.
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