The Works of Magritte Essay

the human eye. Visualize having the ability to completely free your imagination, letting your thoughts and desires wander to form exotic scenes or locations. These unfamiliar worlds lay deep inside of the brain as subconscious thoughts, usually undetected by the person with them in his or her possession. With the help of the intriguing art movement known as Surrealism, however, these subconscious thoughts are finally able to be brought to fruition. Surrealism is a unique style of art that originated in France with the help of brilliant writer André Breton (Chilvers 599). He defined surrealism and its principles as a “purely psychic automatism through which we undertake to express, in words, writing, or any other activity, the actual functioning of thought… Surrealism rests upon belief in the higher reality of specific forms of associations, previously neglected, in the omnipotence of dreams, and in the disinterested play of thinking” (Chilvers 599). He also strongly emphasized that its purpose was “to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality” (Chilvers 599). Surrealism is a 20th century style of painting which rebels against traditional notions of art. In order to understand this genre, it is necessary to examine the movement’s characteristics, representative

Surrealism is a movement that built off of the burgeoning look into art, psychology, and the workings of the mind. Popularly associated with the works of Salvador Dali, Surrealist art takes imagery and ideology and creates correlation where there is none, creating new forms of art. In this essay I will look to explore the inception of the surrealist movement, including the Surrealist Manifesto, to stress the importance of these artists and their work in the 20th century and beyond. I also will look to films from our European Cinema course to express how films incorporate the influence of surrealism both intentionally and unintentionally.

René Magritte Belgian Surrealist artist René Magritte was a master not only of the obvious, but of the obscure as well. In his artwork, Magritte toyed with everyday objects, human habits and emotions, placing them in foreign contexts and questioning their familiar meanings. He suggested new interpretations of old things in his deceivingly simple paintings, making the commonplace profound and the rational irrational. He painted his canvasses in the same manner as he lived his life -- in strange modesty and under constant analysis. Magritte was born in 1898 in the small town of Lessines, a cosmopolitan area of Belgium that was greatly influenced by the French.

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.

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.

Claude Monet sparked the beginning of the Impressionist movement and began to paint “en plein air” as suggested by a friend. Monet focused on the creation of a modern painting instead of subjects on social commentary that the artists (the “Realists”) before him depicted. He explored personal impressions of light and color throughout his career, mainly focusing on the way light played across a surface. He would change the appearance of a painting the more the natural light changed throughout the day, “capturing the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere” (Stokstad 989). This is shown in his painting Impression: Sunrise; even though, this painting, and technique, were criticized. Critics ridiculed his fast, open brushstrokes, and calling it “unfinished” (Stokstad 987). However, this was the intention of Impression: Sunrise and that of his future paintings as well.

What is reality behind surrealism? What is surrealism? Why surrealism? Surrealism is a workmanship development that started in Paris in 1917. The primary event of "surrealism" was in the year 1917. It was initially used to characterize a vaudeville play called 'Les Mamelles de Tiresias' which was delivered by Guillaume Apollinaire. However Apollinaire didn't make an arrangement of standards for his definition, which got to be well known with individuals who enjoyed Apollinaire

Encouraged by his father, Picasso showed his artistic ability from a young age, with his first words supposedly being ‘piz, piz’ in an attempt to say the Spanish word for ‘pencil’, ‘lápiz’. From there, his father taught him how to paint and draw until Picasso surpassed his father at the age of thirteen. Furthermore, Picasso went through many different periods in his art, such as his “Blue Period” from 1901 to 1904. During this time, Picasso was facing loneliness and depression when trying to deal with his close friend’s death. His paintings from this time were made with blues and greens, and depicted poverty, anguish, and isolation. After finally overcoming his grief, the “Blue Period” was replaced by the “Rose Period”, the sorrowful colors replaced by warmer colors like red, beige, and pink. During this time, he was in love with Fernande Olivier, a beautiful model. This period lasted from 1904 to1906. From his “Rose Period” Picasso went into Cubism, an artistic style created with another artist and friend, Georges Braque. Cubism is an abstract style that dismantles objects before piecing them back together to show off their geometric shapes; it gives the painting many points of view at once. This startling new style began in 1907 and lasted until at least 1918, when his Classical Period began. World War I drew Picasso to be solemn once more, coercing him to draw the reality around him, up to 1927.

In the 1920”s surrealism began but it wasn’t until the 1980’s that surrealism took an increasingly influential change in the art society. With surrealism Changing styles in unpredictable ways, many artist interpreted and understood the change. Renne Magritte was very successful with this style of painting as he became well known for this distinct artworks. Rene Magritte was born in 1898 and passed away in 1912. During this period Magritte created an influence and impact on the art world.

STARTS FROM HERE: The French writer Andre Breton in 1924 gave the world the gift of surrealism, which was the painting of the unconscious. The surrealists were always leaning towards a very stark and real representation of the unconscious mind. They hoped and wished for creating paintings and images that went way beyond ordinary paintings in order to reach higher levels of reality. With such masterful thoughts the main source of ideas were dreams, inspiration and most important of all mystery.

What elements of dada and surrealism suggest the influence of Freud? The 20th Century marked a changed in how people viewed the known world. Since its beginning art has played a major role in how people were able to express themselves. The early 20th century brought rise to new and exciting art forms. These were types of writings, paintings and, documentaries that no one had ever seen before. From expressionism to Dadaism types of work ranged by all means of the artist. About the 1920's a new wave of art would soon be seen worlds over. This art form introduced psychology in a new way to look at the conscious and subconscious minds. From the beginning Dadaism and surrealism showed true signs of influence from

Salvador Dali was born into a middle class family on May 11th 1904 in Figures, Spain. During his lifetime, he was an eccentric painter, writer, sculptor and experimental film maker. In Dali’s early years of painting he experimented at first with landscapes, most of which were of his home in Figueres, Spain. Dali also made paintings of the surrounding area of his family’s summer home, in the seaside town of Cadaques. Dali’s transitional period was between 1927 and 1929, these were years of experimentation. In this period gravel, rocks, cork, and other materials can be noted on his canvases. This was more abstract period then others, at this time in Dali’s life he had just been kicked out of the art school he had been attending .

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).

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).

The famous Belgian surrealist artist “Rene Magritte” was famous for his everyday imaginary and interesting graphics.