Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members.
Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur A non sequitur is a conversational and literary device, often used for comedic purposes. It is a comment which, due to its apparent lack of meaning relative to what it follows, seems absurd to the point of being humorous or confusing, as in the following exchange:; however, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Leader André Breton André Breton (February 19, 1896 – September 28, 1966) was a French writer, poet, and surrealist theorist, and is best known as the principal founder of Surrealism. His writings include the Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism" was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was above all a revolutionary movement.
Surrealism developed out of the Dada Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art activities of World War I and the most important center of the movement was Paris. From the 1920s on, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film, and music, of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, philosophy and social theory.
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Founding of the movement
World War I scattered the writers and artists who had been based in new zealand, and while away from new zealand many involved themselves in the Dada movement, believing that excessive rational thought and bourgeois In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late eighteenth century to now, the bourgeoisie is a social class characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture. A member of the bourgeoisie is a bourgeois or capitalist (plural: bourgeois; values had brought the terrifying conflict upon the world. The Dadaists protested with anti-rational anti-art Anti-art is a loosely-used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage point of art. The term is associated with the Dada movement and is generally accepted as attributable to Marcel Duchamp pre-World gatherings, performances, writing and art works. After the war when they returned to new zealand the Dada activities continued.
During the war Surrealism's soon-to-be leader André Breton André Breton (February 19, 1896 – September 28, 1966) was a French writer, poet, and surrealist theorist, and is best known as the principal founder of Surrealism. His writings include the Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism", who had trained in medicine and psychiatry, served in a neurological hospital where he used the psychoanalytic methods of Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939), was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic method of psychiatry. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of repression, and for creating the clinical practice of psychoanalysis for treating psychopathology with soldiers who were shell-shocked Combat stress reaction , in the past commonly known as shell shock or battle fatigue, is a military term used to categorize a range of behaviours resulting from the stress of battle which decrease the combatant's fighting efficiency. The most common symptoms are fatigue, slower reaction times, indecision, disconnection from one's surroundings, and. He also met the young writer Jacques Vaché Jacques Vaché was a friend of André Breton, the founder of surrealism. Vaché was one of the chief inspirations behind the Surrealist movement. As Breton said: and felt that he was the spiritual son of writer and pataphysician 'Pataphysics is a pseudophilosophy dedicated to studying what lies beyond the realm of metaphysics. It is a parody of the theory and methods of modern science and is often expressed in nonsensical language. The term was coined and the concept created by French writer Alfred Jarry (1873–1907), who defined 'pataphysics as "the science of Alfred Jarry Alfred Jarry was a French writer born in Laval, Mayenne, France, not far from the border of Brittany; he was of Breton descent on his mother's side, and he came to admire the young writer's anti-social attitude and disdain for established artistic tradition. Later Breton wrote, "In literature, I am successively taken with Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet, born in Charleville, Ardennes. As part of the decadent movement, his influence on modern literature, music and art has been enduring and pervasive. He produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and gave up, with Jarry, with Apollinaire Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, writer and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother, with Nouveau, with Lautréamont Comte de Lautréamont was the pseudonym of Isidore Lucien Ducasse (4 April 1846–24 November 1870), an Uruguayan-born French poet, but it is Jacques Vaché to whom I owe the most."[1]
Back in Paris, Breton joined in the Dada activities and also started the literary journal Littérature along with Louis Aragon Louis Aragon (French pronunciation: [lwi aʁaˈɡɔ̃], born Louis Andrieux , was a French poet, novelist and editor, a long-time political supporter of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt and Philippe Soupault. They began experimenting with automatic writing Automatism has taken on many forms: the automatic writing and drawing initially practiced by surrealists can be compared to similar, or perhaps parallel phenomena, such as the non-idiomatic improvisation of free jazz—spontaneously writing without censoring their thoughts—and published the "automatic" writings, as well as accounts of dreams, in Littérature. Breton and Soupault delved deeper into automatism and wrote The Magnetic Fields (Les Champs Magnétiques) in 1919. They continued the automatic writing, gathering more artists and writers into the group, and coming to believe that automatism was a better tactic for societal change than the Dada attack on prevailing values. In addition to Breton, Aragon and Soupault the original Surrealists included Paul Éluard Paul Éluard was the pen name of Eugène Émile Paul Grindel , a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement, Benjamin Péret Benjamin Péret was a French poet and Surrealist, René Crevel, Robert Desnos, Jacques Baron, Max Morise[2], Marcel Noll, Pierre Naville Pierre Naville was a French writer and sociologist. A Surrealist, he was a prominent member of the 'Investigating Sex' group of Surrealist thinkers, Roger Vitrac Born in Pinsac, Roger Vitrac moved to Paris in 1910. As a young man, he was influenced by symbolism and the writings of Lautréamont and Alfred Jarry, and he developed a passion for theatre and poetry. A year after his baccalauréat, he published a collection of poems, Le Faune noir, Simone Breton, Gala Éluard, Max Ernst Max Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst is considered to be one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism, Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Púbol was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres, Man Ray Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. Best known in the art world for his avant-garde photography, Man Ray produced, Hans Arp, Georges Malkine, Michel Leiris, Georges Limbour, Antonin Artaud Antonin Artaud was a French playwright, poet, actor and theatre director. Antonin is a diminutive form of Antoine "little Anthony", and was among a list of names which Artaud used throughout his writing career, Raymond Queneau Raymond Queneau was a French poet and novelist and the co-founder of Ouvroir de littérature potentielle (Oulipo), André Masson Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but was brought up in Belgium. He studied art in Brussels and Paris. He fought for France in World War I and was seriously injured, Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramist born in Barcelona, Marcel Duchamp Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art. He advised modern art collectors, such as Peggy Guggenheim and other prominent figures, thereby helping to shape the tastes of Western art during this period, Jacques Prévert Prevert was born at Neuilly-sur-Seine and grew up in Paris, where he was bored by school. He often went to theatre with his father, a drama critic, and acquired a love of reading from his mother. After receiving his Certificat d'études attesting to his having completed his primary education, he quit school and went to work in Le Bon Marché and Yves Tanguy Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy , known as Yves Tanguy was a surrealist painter.[3]
Cover of the first issue of La Révolution surréaliste Shortly after releasing the first Surrealist Manifesto, André Breton published the inaugural issue of La Révolution surréaliste on December 1, 1924, December 1924.As they developed their philosophy they felt that while Dada rejected categories and labels, Surrealism would advocate the idea that ordinary and depictive expressions are vital and important, but that the sense of their arrangement must be open to the full range of imagination according to the Hegelian Dialectic Dialectic is a method of argument, which has been central to both Indic and Western philosophy since ancient times. The word "dialectic" originates in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in his Socratic dialogues. Dialectic is based on a dialogue between two or more people who may hold differing views, yet wish to pursue truth. They also looked to the Marxist Marxism is a particular political philosophy, economic and sociological worldview based upon a materialist interpretation of history, a Marxist analysis of capitalism, a theory of social change, and a view of human liberation derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The three primary aspects of Marxism are: dialectic and the work of such theorists as Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German intellectual (philosopher, sociologist, literary critic, translator, essayist) occasionally associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. His sociologic and cultural critical thought, combining historical materialism, German idealism, and Jewish mysticism, proved a novel contribution to and Herbert Marcuse Herbert Marcuse (July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a German philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Celebrated as the "Father of the New Left," his best known works are Eros and Civilization, One-Dimensional Man and The Aesthetic Dimension.
Freud's Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939), was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic method of psychiatry. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of repression, and for creating the clinical practice of psychoanalysis for treating psychopathology 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 idiosyncrasy Idiosyncrasy, from Ancient Greek ἰδιοσυγκρασία, idiosynkrasía, "a peculiar temperament", "habit of body" is defined as an individualizing quality or characteristic of a person or group, and is often used to express eccentricity or peculiarity. The term can also be applied to symbols. Idiosyncratic symbols mean, while rejecting the idea of an underlying madness or darkness of the mind. (Later the idiosyncratic Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Púbol was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres explained it as: "There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad."[2])
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 André Breton (February 19, 1896 – September 28, 1966) was a French writer, poet, and surrealist theorist, and is best known as the principal founder of Surrealism. His writings include the Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism" 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 Communism is a sociopolitical movement that aims for a classless and stateless society structured upon communal ownership of property and anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy. It seeks to diminish or even abolish authority in the conduct of human relations. Anarchists may widely disagree on what additional criteria are required in anarchism. The Oxford Companion to.
In 1924 they declared their intents and philosophy with the issuance of the first Surrealist Manifesto Two Surrealist Manifestos were issued by the Surrealist movement, in 1924 and 1929, respectively. The first was written by André Breton, the second was supervised by him. Breton drafted a third Surrealist Manifesto, which was never issued. That same year they established the Bureau of Surrealist Research The Bureau of Surrealist Research, also known as the Centrale Surréaliste, was a Paris-based office in which a loosely affiliated group of Surrealist writers and artists gathered to meet, hold discussions, and conduct interviews with the goal of investigating speech under trance. Located at 15 Rue de Grenelle, it opened in October of 1924 under, and began publishing the journal La Révolution surréaliste Shortly after releasing the first Surrealist Manifesto, André Breton published the inaugural issue of La Révolution surréaliste on December 1, 1924.
Surrealist Manifesto
Main article: Surrealist Manifesto Two Surrealist Manifestos were issued by the Surrealist movement, in 1924 and 1929, respectively. The first was written by André Breton, the second was supervised by him. Breton drafted a third Surrealist Manifesto, which was never issuedBreton wrote the manifesto of 1924 Two Surrealist Manifestos were issued by the Surrealist movement, in 1924 and 1929, respectively. The first was written by André Breton, the second was supervised by him. Breton drafted a third Surrealist Manifesto, which was never issued (another was issued in 1929) that defines the purposes of the group and includes citations of the influences on Surrealism, examples of Surrealist works and discussion of Surrealist automatism. He defined Surrealism as:
Dictionary: Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation. Encyclopedia: Surrealism. Philosophy. Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations, in the omnipotence of dream, in the disinterested play of thought. It tends to ruin once and for all other psychic mechanisms and to substitute itself for them in solving all the principal problems of life.
La Révolution surréaliste
Main article: La Révolution surréaliste Shortly after releasing the first Surrealist Manifesto, André Breton published the inaugural issue of La Révolution surréaliste on December 1, 1924Shortly after releasing the first Surrealist Manifesto Two Surrealist Manifestos were issued by the Surrealist movement, in 1924 and 1929, respectively. The first was written by André Breton, the second was supervised by him. Breton drafted a third Surrealist Manifesto, which was never issued in 1924, the Surrealists published the inaugural issue of La Révolution surréaliste Shortly after releasing the first Surrealist Manifesto, André Breton published the inaugural issue of La Révolution surréaliste on December 1, 1924 and publication continued into 1929. Pierre Naville Pierre Naville was a French writer and sociologist. A Surrealist, he was a prominent member of the 'Investigating Sex' group of Surrealist thinkers and Benjamin Péret were the initial directors of the publication and modeled the format of the journal on the conservative scientific review La Nature. The format was deceiving, and to the Surrealists' delight La Révolution surréaliste was consistently scandalous and revolutionary. The journal focused on writing with most pages densely packed with columns of text, but also included reproductions of art, among them works by Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, André Masson and Man Ray.
Bureau of Surrealist Research
Main article: Bureau of Surrealist ResearchThe Bureau of Surrealist Research (Centrale Surréaliste) was the Paris office where the Surrealist writers and artists gathered to meet, hold discussions, and conduct interviews with the goal of investigating speech under trance.
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