Surrealism

André Breton was a poet, critic, and novelist not a visual artist, but he was still largely considered to be the leader of the Surrealist movement. He wrote the First Surrealist Manifesto in 1924. There are works of art created prior to this date that certainly fit the classifications of Surrealism (Giorgio de Chirico comes to mind), but we generally mark this as a beginning of the movement proper. Interestingly, it was actually not Breton who first proposed the name Surrealism. It was actually our friend Guilaume Apollinaire. You may remember him from the Cubism lecture. He's one of the critics who wrote quite a bit about Cubism early on. Breton's manifesto defines Surrealism as "pure psychic automatism". Automatism is a performance of actions without conscious thought or intention. so here we can see again the influence of Freud's work in psychoanalysis. The word Surrealism means " more than real" or "better than real". The movement, which again starts as a literary movement, explores dreams, the unconscious, the element of chance, and the multiple levels of reality. At this point in the 20th century, these themes should seem fairly familiar. Most of the movements we have looked at thus far explore one or more of them. Surrealism emerges at the time it does because of two main contributing factors: World War I and Sigmund Freud. As we have already talked about, WWI destroyed (psychologically and physically) the western world, particularly Europe. We've also talked a bit about Freud and his work exploring the "dynamic unconscious". Freud also postulates in his work in psychoanalysis and dream analysis that dreams reveal hidden inner truths about ourselves. Breton says, "Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of the dream." So, we can see the very direct connection to Freud. Two other important influences for the Surrealists were the DaDa movement, which we've talked about, and the writings of the Marquis de Sade. I'll talk about this a little more in the lecture. Another important writer in the development of Surrealism is George Bataille. He and Breton eventually have some fundamental disagreements and part ways, but he is another key founder of the movement particularly in the foundational literary work. Surrealism is a large movement and it doesn't really end. There are contemporary artists who self-label as Surrealists today. There are a lot of characteristics associated with the visual art branch of Surrealism, but here's a list of some of them: reaction to the chaos of WWI; dreams, subconscious mind, and Freud's influence; impossible scale shifts; reversal of natural laws; double images; juxtaposition; use of symbolic images; reference to personal phobias; and expressive abstraction. Much of the impact of Surrealist works begins with the viewer's sudden awareness of the incongruity and absurdity of what the artist composes. Surrealism develops along two lines: Naturalistic Surrealism and Biomorphic Surrealism. In Naturalistic Surrealism, artists presented recognizable scenes that seem to have metamorphosed into a dream or a nightmare image. Think Dalí, Varo. In Biomorphic Surrealism, automatism dominated. Like Miró or Gorky. Another note is that Freud is the first person to work in psychoanalysis, but he is not the only influential person after the field is established. Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) and Julia Kristeva (1941-present, age 79) both further develop psychoanalysis in important, post-structuralist directions. Kristeva's Powers of Horror is extremely influential in the art world after its publication in 1982. That is to say, psychoanalysis is not a static field that begins and ends with Freud.