The Surrealist Art Movement

Dadaism was a reflex reaction to World War 1, and like what has been mentioned earlier, the war was an awful time. It brought despair, and Dada was means of escape. Their philosophy was one of absurdity and meaninglessness. The artists and intellectuals involved gained satisfaction through the shock and enragement of their audiences. André Breton joined the ranks of the Dadaists, gained power, but eventually split away due to his different vision. Dada was too iconoclastic and focused on negativity compared to Surrealism, which was a movement of positive

"I hope she 'll be a fool — that 's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool . . . You see, I think everything 's terrible anyhow . . . And I know. I 've been everywhere and seen everything and done everything." (The Great Gatsby, pg. 20) There was a loss of innocence, disillusionment and lack of faith in the American Dream. This became the movement known as Modernism. WWI was the first “total war” in which modern weapons spared no one. The casualties suffered by the participants in World War I dwarfed those of previous wars. The armed forces continued to use old tactics, but had modern weaponry that of which caused a major number of casualties. This war left American’s with a scar on their hearts, and in their minds. WWI changed the game completely, and after the massacres that occurred during the war, and the complete and utter destruction that was left behind, caused uproar in American values and principles. This was the start and basis for the Modernist movement.

However, there were supporters of the movement during its time. Published in 1935 in A Short Survey of Surrealism, author David Gascoyne praised the movement for its revolutionary ideals, stating, “Already

Explain how both Dada and Surrealism changed the form, content, and concept of art. Which two works of art discussed in the chapter would you choose to represent these two movements?

World War I had a more profound effect on society than wars prior. With new deadly weapons, like poison gas, high death tolls, and the first occurrence of total war, shocked the world, tearing people between the modern and the tradition. Traditional society was torn down by the destruction of the war. As with most literary movements, writers reflect the world

Salvador Dali is one of the most famous surrealist artists. His artwork is fascinating to look at and analyze. All of his work is very imaginative, rendered at a high level of realism, and is filled with extensive symbolism. First I will talk about the history of Surrealism, then how Dali studied and admired Sigmund Freud's theories which greatly influenced his art, he used Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of dream interpretation to invent a technique for his work, and then using this technique he painted his bizarre dreams.

development in visual artwork and writing, thriving in Europe between World Wars I and II. Surrealism became essentially was the next step up from the dada movement, which before World War I delivered works of against artwork that defied all reasoning; yet Surrealism's accentuation was not on invalidation but rather on positive expression. The development spoke to a response against what its individuals saw as the devastation created by the "logic" that had guided European society and governmental issues in the past and that had finished in the detestations of World War I.

Surrealism was an art movement based on dreams, unconscious thought and defying conventional logic. It grew out of the earlier avant-garde movement called Dada in the 1920s.

Surrealism occurred in the early twenties right after the First World War had ended. Surrealism was first introduced in Europe. Surrealism was created so that people could unbridle their imagination from their subconscious. Some people would argue that surrealism was created so that people could handle the change that was occurring in the early twenties.

René Magritte was a famous surrealist artist, although he did not become famous until his late 50’s. René Magritte was born in Lessines, Belgium in 1898. René Magritte later figured out he wanted to devote his life to art so he went to go study art at Academie des Beaux-Art. He left the school before finishing because he believed it was a waste of his time. After leaving school, he began to make paintings using cubism which was inspired by Pablo Picasso and he also imitated the art style of post impressionism (which was very famous for artists like Cezanne and Van Gogh). He later altered his paintings to show surrealism. The first of his surrealism paintings included The Threatened Assassin, which shows a dead body and the killer who is being followed by others. Surrealism is a type of painting that causes people to use imagination so everyone sees a painting and interprets it in many different ways.

Surrealism stems directly from the effects of modern age warfare (Brahman, Kennan, & Alcaine, 2004). Europe was left devastated and disillusioned after years of fighting in World War I (Brahman, Kennan, & Alcaine, 2004) .The effects of the war were visible everywhere in Europe as populations became stagnant, economies plummeted, buildings remained in ruins and many survivors suffered from depression (Brahman, Kennan, & Alcaine, 2004).The general population had a feeling of utter destruction at the hands of man (Brahman, Kennan, & Alcaine, 2004). There was a great void left in European cities beautiful and true topple into an abyss of ridicule and shame (Brahman, Kennan, & Alcaine, 2004).

After 1909, Picasso and Braque began a more systematic study of structure, which we know as "Analytical Cubism". In this period, they removed bright colors from their compositions, favouring monochromatic earth tones so that they could focus on the structure. The paintings of this period look as if they have deconstructed objects and rearranged them on the canvas. One goal of this is to depict different viewpoints all at once. After the artists had grown tired of the Analytical period, they began to develop what is known as the Synthetic period. Picasso and Braque continue to introduce new and controversial changes with the introduction of collaged

36. 1940, Ernst, Max, Europe after the Rain, German, oil on canvas, Surrealist Painting, Veristic.

The DADA art movement was an anti- art/anti-war political movement against war (WWI). World War I caused over 6.6 million civilian and military deaths (World war I by the Numbers, 2015) and this upset many people. Artist’s decided to react and protest using their talent starting what we know as the DADA art movement.The movement began in the 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland connecting art to the social conditions of what was going on in the world. Dadaist felt the battle over the land resources and power was pointless inhumane and confirmed society’s degradation. They gave a powerful metaphoric meaning, protesting the brutality of World War Ι through art. There were no rules and no unifying styles but their principles were the equivalent. Dadaism also emerged in other cities like Berlin, Hanover, Cologne, New York and Paris.

Andre breton (trained in medicine and psychiatry) joined the dada along with louis aragon and philippe soupault