An Insight Into The World Of Surrealism And Dreams

As mentioned surrealism, like Dadaism, tried to distance itself from contemporary culture and sought to shock the familiarity of reality. Hence, the unconscious has a centrepiece in surrealist art and the underlying theme was to create images of such unconscious situation or universes. This was primarily achieved with the use of symbolism and the placing of objects in unfamiliar settings. This would revitalize and redefine such objects outside the conventional reality that is the adversary in surrealist art and hence create the desired conflict between the conventional and the unconscious (Waldberg 1997; Martin 1987).

Henderson records her sensory experiences from various states of unconsciousness, such as dreams and hypnosis. This direct, or “automatic”, transcription of the unconscious mind reduces an artist’s subjective involvement. In other words, the artist is not expressing her thoughts and feelings but documenting her perception in her artwork. Being derived from dreams, the content is more objective without the artist’s intentional modification. This withdrawal of artist’s subjectivity is significant in allowing the content to speak for itself: the clown figure as the signifier who takes over the meaning.

Surrealism was a 20th century art movement whose proponents dedicated themselves to translating their unconscious into art objects. In this essay I will argue that the cultural work accomplished by Giorgio de Chirico’s Piazza d’Italia and his metaphysical painting style is to be precursors of the surrealism movement, whether de Chirico likes it or not. The metaphysical painting style is similar in form to the “dream-transcription” sub-category of surrealist painting, as well as similar in subject matter (D’Souza). Although de Chirico came to dislike his early career paintings and surrealism, foundational surrealists such as André Breton and Paul Éluard were known to collect and admire his early work (Holman). Breton even declared de Chirico to be a “signpost pointing to surrealism” (“CHIRICO”).

Surrealism was one of the most influential artistic movements of the 20th Century. André Breton consolidated Surrealism as a movement in the early 1920s, trying to achieve the “total liberation of the mind and of all that resembles it[1]” through innovative and varied ideas. Surrealism deeply influenced the world in the era between the two world wars and played a big role in the diffusion and adoption of psychology worldwide. Surrealism faded after World War II, but its revolutionary genius has influenced every artistic movement ever since.

The surrealist artists believed the dream state and subconscious mind to be an untapped and very fertile creative fount of inspiration. The symbolism of dreams and the expressive images generated by the subconscious were far more thought provoking than the representational, logical images of the conscious mind. The surrealist artists were creating art out of what others thought to be garbled and unintelligible. They were in effect taking a concept created to heal and using it to create art instead. They were on to something with this. No matter what the medium or the style used, a bit of the self becomes visible and evident in the result. Art therapy is one of the modern descendants of this movement.

Most pieces of art has a deeper meaning than what is simply expressed on the surface. Through emotions, symbols, and motifs, an artist can show or tell a unique story; however, despite the usage of creative symbols, distinct stories can show a similar theme. Two such examples are the short film Destino by Salvador Dali and Walt Disney and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald which share the common theme of “the struggle of obtaining dreams”. Based on what is shown in these works of art, it is a challenge to attain dreams.

To Dream the Electric Dream by Saya Woolfalk is—according to the artist, a piece about surpassing the limits of the human body, especially in regards to different cultures and ethnicities. The materials used are different from the other works of art presented in the gallery as it is a an unconventional type of mixed media—digital elements mixed with fiber elements. Woolfalk uses the space itself and the orientation of the elements within the piece as well as color to convey the message and the mood of the piece in question.

To begin, we will look at the ideals and influences that led to the formation of surrealist ideals,

Freud was a major proponent of exploring the unconscious mind and dream imagery in order to uncover human desire and break down taboos surrounding human sexuality(Brahman, Kennan, & Alcaine, 2004). In some respects Surrealist images can be considered visual renditions of Freudian analyses(Brahman, Kennan, & Alcaine, 2004). The desires of the unconscious mind of the artist may manifest themselves in displaced images of women, the human form, birds, or insects(Brahman, Kennan, & Alcaine, 2004). These estranged fragments float in dream like spaces and are often disturbingly violent whether they are rendered in paint, photography or film(Brahman, Kennan, & Alcaine, 2004).

As Dali moved into his Surrealist years he became more interested in psychology and exploring his own fears and fantasies. Dali’s Surrealist period last from 1929-1940, in which years he joined the Surrealist Movement, and shortly after became a leader in this movement. In order to bring images from his “subconscious mind”, Dali began to use a method to find inspiration for his art; he would induce hallucinatory states in himself. As his work matured, and his fame grew

Abstract Expressionism is making its comeback within the art world. Coined as an artist movement in the 1940’s and 1950’s, at the New York School, American Abstract Expressionist began to express many ideas relevant to humanity and the world around human civilization. However, the subject matters, contributing to artists, were not meant to represent the ever-changing world around them. Rather, how the world around them affected the artist themselves. The works swayed by such worldly influences, become an important article within the artists’ pieces. Subjectively, looking inward to express the artist psyche, artists within the Abstract Expressionism movement became a part of their paintings. Making the paintings more of a representation

Gershgorn argues that the series of modified pictures produced by the computer are its dreams. Moreover, he draws an analogy between the process of learning and dreaming.

The surrealist movement holds emotional authenticity and social activism as the highest ideals. Influenced by the work of Freud and Jung, the arts are viewed as psychic manifestations that go deeper than external reality. Spontaneous techniques, like psychic automatism (i.e. automatic writing and drawing), generate images from the unconscious and result in content similar to dream experiences and contemplating these images provides a new experience of reality (McNiff, 2009).

Close your eyes and think of the last dream you had, do you remember it? Maybe you had the ability to fly or you were falling down. For some, you may have woken up gasping for air due to a scary dream. If any of you are like me you experience seemingly realistic dreams.

Thesis: Understanding how dreams occur, how they affect our lives and what they mean to help us grasp what dreams actually are.