Surrealism persists to this day, and can be encountered in weird movie dream sequences, in goofy advertisements, and in literary stream-of-consciousness passages in novels. Yet the original intent of Surrealism was not necessarily to provide a device for revealing inner states of mind, nor to grab attention for marketing soda pop. Instead, it was meant to advance a socio-political agenda. Due to a number of bitter schisms among its founding members, however, the message of Surrealism dissipated and its meaning became up for grabs for anyone to interpret on an individual and personal basis. This is perhaps for the best.
Emerging in Paris around 1920, from the Dada movement of the prior decade - and in fact founded by several of the Dadaists themselves - Surrealism placed more emphasis on generating art through subconscious psychological processes, rather than by the deliberately iconoclastic methods of Dada. In both cases, a desire to shock and shake up the complacent norms of society was evident. But these strange new works of art could hardly be relied upon to point out the preferred direction for society to aim toward.
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| 1st issue, Dec. 1924 | |
Consequently, André Breton, the self-appointed leader of the Surrealists, took the opportunity to write a couple of manifestos on Surrealism, to explain its purpose and agenda - which of course, was actually only Breton's own agenda. He insisted that Surrealism was essentially an expression and promotion of communist ideals. Yet the most famous Surrealist, Salvador Dali, was a staunch monarchist. The clash between Dali and Breton over this issue led to Dali's exile from Breton's club of Surrealist artists. Yet Dali continues to be identified as a Surrealist long after his death, and few people nowadays associate Surrealism with either monarchism or communism. It's just weird art, that's all.
Techniques used by Surrealists include automatic writing, depictions of distorted or disassembled objects in unusual juxtapositions, blind collaboration, incorporating accidents and mistakes, using dreams and hallucinations for inspiration, and the re-appropriation of symbols and myths. An example of blind collaboration is the parlor game Exquisite Corpse, in which the drawing paper is passed around to the next artist, folded to conceal the work in progress. The point is surprise, generally yielding both incongruity and connectivity when the final product is unfolded. All of these techniques are meant to restrain the conscious mind from meddling too much in the creative process, in order to produce art that could serve equally well as a Rorschach test - with its ambiguities revealing more about the psychology of the viewer than they do about the artist.
Some of the better known Surrealists include: Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Paul Éluard, Salvador Dali, André Breton, Antonin Artaud, Joan Miró, Luis Buñuel, Man Ray, Hans Arp, Tristan Tzara, Erik Satie, and (peripherally) Pablo Picasso. It was largely a boy's club. But there were indeed some female Surrealists, such as Méret Oppenheim and Gala Éluard.
Wikipedia article:
Surrealism
One of our favorite radio programs has dedicated its playlist this evening to experimental music, including some artists who were featured at NODAMS last Friday. Here is a quote of radio host Fred Kellogg's announcement on Facebook, followed by a link to his Spinitron list of what was broadcast:
