Cathrin Klingsöhr-Leroy's Surrealism Analysis

World War 1 was a gruesome point in history that led to immense carnage and anguish of millions. However, on a happier note, this dark time was followed by movements such as Cubism, Precisionism, and Expressionism. Among these movements existed Surrealism, a movement that would not have come to be without the influence of “the war to end all wars”.

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

Similarly, in 1948 Balakian described the work of the Surrealists with a patronizing tone, stating that due to the realistic imagery required in Naturalistic Surrealism, the works produced were uninteresting in their application, becoming “… a smooth, academic, almost banal way of using the painter's material” (Hodin).

The surrealist movement of the 1920s-1930s was largely based on the notion that excessive rational thought is a catalyst of conflict and war throughout the world. Salvador Dali’s The Persistence

Frida Kahlo, she never intended to become a painter. Kahlo was aspired to become a doctor as a young woman, but after a horrible accident at the age of 18, it left her mentally, as well as physically scared for life. This event had totally changed her life forever. The theme in almost all of Frida’s painting was her own life. Her paintings were based on events took place during her lifetime. As we can see in many of Frida’s paintings, especially in her self-portraits, it expresses her own personal emotions along with feelings about an event that happened in her life, such as her physical condition, her lack of ability to conceive children of her own, her ideology of life and nature, and most important of all, it was her unstable relationship with her husband Diego. Somewhere between the movement of surrealism, realism and symbolism in the art of Frida Kahlo, she was able to bring out tenderness, femininity, reality, cruelty and suffering within her paintings.

André Breton ran the Surrealist Movement with impressive discipline and rigidity, making an interesting contrast between what the Surrealists preached and the management style of its leader. An interesting story, for example, tells how Salvador Dalí, one of the most prominent members of the Surrealist movement, attended a New York costume party dressed up as Charles Lindbergh’s son, who had been recently kidnapped and murdered. New York’s society did not take the statement well and eventually made Dalí apologize for his behavior. Breton, however, almost dismissed him from Movement because he claimed that “no one should excuse himself for a Surrealist act[6].” This anecdote demonstrates the seriousness of Breton and his Movement towards its final objective: revolution and the slashing of society’s conventions in the interest of a subconscious reality.

Visual opulence, creativity, inimitable vision, and a style that is highly influential are the many characteristics of an admired movement in art history, that being of the Post-Impressionism movement (1875-1892). This movement, which was a by-product of the Impressionism movement, is the bridging gap between the two movements known as Realism and Expressionism. Post-Impressionism takes on some of the stylistic characteristics of these movements; however, it does not contain the all too glossy visuals of Realism or the heavily fantastic visuals of Expressionism, rather it is the intermediary of these two poles. My paper will discuss why this link was absolutely essential to the history of art movements, and I will be specifically using the

Although there are significant distinctions between Dadaism and Surrealist movement in their focus of interest in exploring the language and the art, they also happen to have similar concept for groundbreaking the norms and sometimes makes it hard for people to differentiate them. Then, here is an artist who manage to cover and is considered to be one of the pioneers for both Dadaism and Surrealism: Max Ernst. Due to the traumatic army experience during the World War 1, Ernst became highly critical of the western culture. His experience of the brutality of the world critically influenced his later works to become quite absurd, yet interesting like those of other Dadaists. In terms of relationship between the word and the image, Ernst created the so-called fatagaga, or Fabrication de Tableaux Gasometriques Garantis, which meant the combination of the artists to create an artwork including imagery and text. These Dadaist collaborative works deemphasized the importance of individual authorship and allowed the artists’ interactions to further development of Dadaism.

The use of symbolism in the stories “A Rose for Emily “and “Yellow Wall Paper” is used to portray how the protagonists feel trapped in their lives becoming virtual prisoners in their own homes. It also illustrates their attempt to escape their trapped lives

It is this author’s judgment that a specific photographic artwork of Man Ray is not a legitimate link between George Hodel and Elizabeth Short’s murder given that there are discrepancies when analyzing Short’s body and Man Ray’s artwork. On the other hand, there may be a link between surrealism as a link to Short’s murder. However, it is a weak link that seems to be based on pure speculation, forcing readers to make conclusions without first inquiring George Hodel’s legitimacy, or lack thereof, as a surrealist. The overarching argument here is that while George Hodel may have killed Short, neither Man Ray’s artwork nor the movement known as surrealism seem to be a legitimate connection to Short’s murder.

Philosopher Arthur Danto, author of “The Artworld,” an artistic criticism, states that “to see something as art requires something that the eye cannot descry—an atmosphere of artistic theory, a knowledge of the history of art: an artworld” (201). Artistic theory, according to Danto, requires the presence of a subject, style, rhetorical ellipses, and that of historical context. Danto is capable of developing this view on art with the aid of an imaginary character, Testadura. Testadura, however, makes mistakes, as well as corrections, about the objects before him.

Junichiro Tanizaki and Louise Erdrich are renowned authors of their time. Undeterred by the more than 50 years between their two works of literature, The Key and Shadow Tag, contains similar messages and images that transcribes throughout the pages of these two works are timeless. In conclusion, When read decades from now, the reader would understand and possibly connect to what is being represented. It has been suggested, Louise Erdrich was influenced by Tanizaki’s The Key, However even with the influences, changes were made that correlated of the message Louise Enrich wanted to portray. Louise Enrich use of similar storyline conveyed her view of a husband’s obsession to “consume” his wife’s being, but where the impact of the story lies is in the changes she created where his obsession is not to reach sexual gratification as in Tanizaki’s The Key. The message

The Menil Collection in Houston downtown has a wide variety of art ranging from ancient art to surrealism. Although there were all types of art, surrealism struck out to me. While trying to grasp the whole idea and why this was created. I came across this one painting that froze me in place and drew my mind into amazement. The “La lunette d’approche” or “the Telescope,” an oil based painting on canvas created by Rene Magritte in 1963. Its contents grab me by the arm and drew me closer. Allowing me to escape into the darkness it depicts behind the open window. It metaphorically represents how everything could be a front in one’s eyes while beneath everything they are things one might not want to share with other. While everything might seem

Wilfredo Lam’s Untitled, 1953 and Matta’s Untitled (Flying People Eaters), 1942 share a wall in gallery 397 of the AIC. The two drawings were completed within 12 years of each other, and they seem be in conversation as surrealist compositions. Both pieces incorporate primitivist imagery into their engagement with the surreal. However, where Matta uses this imagery to further Freudian shock value and bring forward abject discomfort, Lam uses “primitive” symbology to discuss notions of Afro-Cuban identity through a cubist and surreal lens.

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).