Surrealism
Surrealist artists attempted to record the subconscious and unconscious
workings of the mind to get “beneath the realistic surface of life”.
(Brommer 476)
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Surrealism developed out of the Dadaist movement.
Artists began to feel that the directions that Dada could take had run out and
they began to work in varying styles with different messages.
André Breton was the creator of Surrealism in 1924.
Breton was a writer, not an artist, however his writings would become the
foundation of the Surrealist movement.
Breton emphasized the dream world, word association and unconscious writing
First Surrealist art exhibition:
When: Paris, 1925
Who: Ernst (p. 480-1), Arp (Dada p. 480), de Chirico (p. 479), Klee and Picasso
Joan Miró would form the heart of the Surrealist movement, which would shortly
thereafter attract René Magritte and Salvador Dali to the group.
In Canada, a group called Les Automatistes were forming led by Borduas, which
included artists such as Riopelle…
Development of Surrealism
1. Chance techniques, i.e. rubbing a pencil over a paper placed on boards to see
what image the grains of the wood may suggest.
2. Many juxtaposed recognizable subject matter (often personal & unexplained
symbolism) in illogical ways to create weird associations.
Paul Klee (1879-1940) born in Switzerland, moved to Munich,
Germany in 1911.
He joined the group De Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) in 1911 and lived in poverty.
His wife gave piano lesson, while he did his small watercolours, etchings and
drawings on his kitchen table.
Taught at the Bauhaus and became close friends with Kandinsky.
Characteristics:
 Children’s art
 Expressive colour
 Witty
 Childlike vision of the workings of life and world
 References automatic drawing techniques
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Twittering Machine, 1922
“Twittering” refers to the birds. “Machine” is suggested by the hand crank.
They act to fuse the natural with the industrial world
Birds are drawn in a childlike manner pirched upon a wire, which is attached to a
crank.
The undulating wire presents a nervous sensation. The crank makes it seem as
though the machine is a music box, which used the birds as bait to lure victims to
the pit beneath the machine. (The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York:
The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 127
http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=37347)
Paul Émile Borduas
Leader of Les Automatistes in Montréal, Quebec
He developed a method for Surrational Automatist painting:
1. begin without any preconceived ideas
2. face the white sheet or canvas, free from any literary ideas, and respond to his
first impulse
3. He did not question the placement of his first mark. He moved forward with his
gut instinct and continues on from there.
4. Once the first line is drawn, the page is automatically divided, which opens up a
slew of painterly questions, such as movement, rhythm, volume and light.
5. After he had drawn all of the lines that he desired, he would follow the same
steps with colour.
 "The general idea which may be derived from a painting is a consequence of
the unity of conditions under which the painting is made. The conditions are
not chosen, they are accepted." (Borduas) By conditions, Borduas means
mental state, emotional, unconscious, and psyche.
 "Once the work is finished, the general idea is of only secondary importance.
The essential beauty of a work of art is made up of nothing but its song… Art
must be produced in a constant state of becoming so that instinct, from
which the song flows, may express itself continuously as the work is being
executed." (Borduas)
Borduas, Abstraction No. 6 or Chantecler, Gouache on paper, 1942
Borduas, 9.48 or Lampadaires du matin (Morning Candelabra), Oil on canvas,
1948.
Borduas, Expansion rayonnante, 1954
 Borduas eventually eliminated all colour from his work to create only black
and white paintings.
Jean-Paul Riopelle
One of Canada’s most famous abstract painters
 He was Borduas’ student.
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Riopelle, Coups sur coups, 1953
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He applied the paint to his canvas directly from the tube and spread it with
his palette knife.
He created all-over compositions like Jackson Pollock.
Joan Miró (1893-1983) Spanish
Miró, Women at Sunrise, 1946
Characteristics:
 witty
 animals, people, but sometimes purely abstract shapes
 black lines
 flat shapes of red, yellow, blue, black and white
 shapes float on a soft background
 shapes overlap to create new shapes or become transparent
René Magritte (1898-1967) Belgian
Magritte, Time Transfixed, 1938
Characteristics:
 witty and puzzling
 absurd combinations of realistically painted objects
 The total work raises more questions than answers
Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989) Spanish
Dali is the most famous Surrealist.
Initially influenced by Picasso and Miró
Characteristics:
 Realistic painting style (rejected abstraction or simplified forms)
 Depiction of three-dimensional space
 Fantastical imagery and odd combinations
 Rocky Spanish cliffs are recurring imagery in backgrounds
 Later in life, he began painting religious subjects
The Persistence of Memory, 1931
 Best-known painting (small - only 9 ½” x 13”)
 Metallic and solid objects, such as clocks, are depicted soft and melting.
 Limp watches, gigantic ants and a partial face are depicted with
Spanish rocky cliffs in the background.
Sacrament of the Last Supper, 1955
 Use the same deep space used in The Persistence of Memory
 Recalls Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper
 Christ’s body is translucent
 A partial torso floats above the table and behind Jesus.
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The window is created by a translucent dodecahedron (12-sided
shape), which symbolizes the universe.
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