SURREALISM
Surrealism can be defined as “The expression of pure thought in the absence of all control exerted by reason”
It can also be described as “The projection of a dream”.
History shows that the work of some artists was always inspired by dreams, the supernatural, the irrational, and the absurd.
The true emergence of surrealism, as an art form, occurred in the period just before and between the two world wars.
The artists who came together, in Paris, in the early 1920’s mistrusted the materialistic and bourgeois society they believed were responsible for world war one and its aftermath.
They also felt life was smug, superficial and driven by technological and scientific achievements.
Their answer was a revolutionary new Anti-Art…………Surrealism.
Their leader was Andre Breton the son of a shopkeeper. During WW1 he worked in a neurological hospital where he used Sigmund Freud’s methods to treat soldiers suffering from shell shock. Although he studied as a psychoanalyst he never qualified.
Influenced by psychological theories he was the first to define Surrealism in 1924, he is acknowledged as the founding father of the art form.
From 1927 to 1935 he was a member of the French Communist Party but split from them in disgust at Stalin, his show trials and executions. He remained a Marxist and when France fell at the beginning of WW11 he fled to the USA.
SALVADOR DALI
Salvador Dali 1904-1989
The most famous member of the Surrealist group was Salvador Dali.
He created hundreds of surrealist paintings, sculptures, films and books.
He was however excommunicated from the group by Breton who thought he had gone too commercial and staged things to draw attention to himself.
This was possibly true considering he titled his autobiography “The Diary of a Genius”. He was nevertheless a brilliant artist……. if without doubt a very complicated person.
The Persistence of Memory – Salvador Dali
MAX ERNST
Max Ernst 1891-1976
A German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of Surrealism.
Living in Paris in September 1939, the outbreak of World War II caused Ernst to be interned as an "undesirable foreigner. Thanks to the intercession of friends he was released a few weeks later. Soon after the German occupation of France, he was arrested again, this time by the Gestapo, but managed to escape and flee to America. He left behind his lover, Leonora Carrington, and she suffered a major mental breakdown.
The Temptation of St Anthony 1945 Max Ernst
LEONORA CARRINGTON
Leonora Carrington 1917-2011
Leonora was born in Chorley, England into a wealthy textile manufacturing family.
Her family were strong Catholics although she was a wild thing and expelled from two boarding schools.
In 1937 she met Max Ernst who left his wife for her and they became lovers.
When Ernst fled Paris when it fell to the Nazis she suffered a nervous breakdown and was institutionalised by her family.
She managed to escape and fled to Spain then Mexico where she married Imre Weisz, the darkroom manager for Robert Capa.
Leonora Carrington - Self Portrait 1937
Interviewed in 1983 she said, “I didn’t have the time to be anyone’s muse, I was too busy rebelling against my family and learning to be an artist”.
RENE MAGRITTE
Rene Magritte 1898-1967
One image which appears in many of Magritte's paintings is that of his mother. He saw her fished from the river Sambre at the age of fourteen, she had committed suicide. The body was found naked apart from a nightgown which obscured only the face as it was tangled around her. After a short period of military service in 1921, he joined the surrealist movement. His first surrealist work was in 1926.
Rene Magritte
FRIDA KAHLO
Frida Kahlo 1907-1954
She had lifelong health problems caused by an accident when she was a child.
During a long recovery she spent a lot a time alone.
Known for her self portraits, she said “I paint myself because I’m the subject I know best. I was born a bitch and I was born a painter”
She had a volatile marriage to another surrealist painter Diego Rivera.
Frida Kahlo - The Little Deer 1946
VLADIMIR KUSH
Vladimir Kush 1965-
Vladimir was born in Russia, before and after military conscription he studied the work of the surrealist painters.
He left for Hawaii and in 2001 opened his first gallery. He now has four galleries in the USA and is very successful.
Vladimir Kush - Fashionable Bridge
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Without realising the fact a lot of my work, from the very early days, has been surrealist. Images from thoughts if not dreams have always figured prominently.
Doomwatch 1986
Pagan Temple 1990
Rocket Man 2007
American Trilogy 2008
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DIGITAL SURREALISM
The idea for “Sky Ride” comes from a thought of being on a big dipper, the world is flashing by then suddenly the track runs out. You are high above a city and there is only one outcome……unless of course the car you are in can fly!
The big dipper was shot on the seafront at Weston Super Mare.
The car and track were carefully selected using a combination of the Quick Selection tool and the Polygonal Lasso tool and restored using the Clone Stamp tool. The background was removed. The Warp tool was used to distort the track.
The moon was shot at a place called Tucumcari, a living ghost town on Route 66, in New Mexico. The moon was selected using the Magic Wand tool and cut out.
The city was New York taken, with a fisheye lens, from the viewing platform at the top of the Rockefeller building.
The sky was selected, using the magic wand tool, and then cut out. A Find Edges layer was added to create a sense of evening light.
The background was a new layer filled with black.
The three elements were dragged & dropped into the layers stack, resized using the Transform tool and re-positioned using the Move tool.
Sky Ride
Tension, drama and a sense of pending doom is in my opinion the reason why this image is successful.
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