Surrealism was a movement in art and thought, launched formally in Paris in 1924 with Andre Breton's Surrealist Manifesto, that sought to unlock the unconscious mind through techniques such as automatic writing and dream imagery. In painting it produced both meticulously rendered dreamlike scenes and looser automatist experiments, and its influence extended into film, photography and literature well beyond the movement's own formal boundaries.
Facts
Founded In PlaceParis, France, launched formally with Andre Breton 1924 Surrealist Manifesto 1 Key PrincipleAndre Breton's Manifeste du surrealisme, published 15 October 1924, defined Surrealism as pure psychic automatism intended to express the real functioning of thought, in writing or by any other means, free of reason, aesthetic or moral concern. 2 Key PrincipleUnlocking the unconscious mind through techniques such as automatic writing and dream imagery, extending beyond painting into film, photography and literature 1 Disputed
End YearAndre Breton, the movement's founder and chief theorist, died in 1966, and the formal Surrealist group dissolved in 1969. Some historians treat the movement as continuing informally well beyond either date, so no single end year is fully settled. Surrealism
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Connections
Associated With
Source Musee Picasso Paris, Picasso biography, Surrealism section
Expressed In
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
Influenced By
Dada, Movements Surrealism grew directly out of Dada, with several core Surrealists former Dadaists who redirected Dadas anti-rational spirit toward the unconscious.
Long-Form Articles
Movement Members
Frida Kahlo, Artists Why this is disputed. Andre Breton and other Surrealists claimed Kahlo as one of their own after seeing her work in the 1930s, but Kahlo herself rejected the label, saying she painted her own reality rather than dreams. Her connection to Surrealism is carried here as a live art historical dispute, not a settled classification.
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
Metaphysical painter whose work directly prefigured and was embraced by the Surrealists.
Core Surrealist (and Dada) artist.
Source Wikipedia
Additional Source René Magritte (Wikipedia)Rene Magritte, Wikipedia summary lead, movement
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
Source Wikipedia
Additional Source The Treachery of Images (Wikipedia)Lead section
Core Surrealist painter of the Cuban circle around Andre Breton.
In the Other Atlases
Influenced By
Also in Philosophy Atlas: which influenced this subject.
Originated In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Sources
1. Gardner's Art Through the Ages
Fred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner), Cengage Learning- chapter on Surrealism
- Movement Members: Frida Kahlo, chapter on twentieth century painting in the Americas, section on Kahlo
- Movement Members: Salvador Dalí, chapter on Surrealism, section on Salvador Dali
- Movement Members: The Persistence of Memory, chapter on Surrealism, section on Salvador Dali
2. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationLong-Form Articles: Two Manifestos and a Fight for the Word SurrealismView the Source Wikipedia: Surrealism
WikipediaSurrealism, Founding of the movement, Surrealist Manifestos sectionQuote, Surrealism, Founding of the movement, Surrealist Manifestos section
Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought.
Musee Picasso Paris, Picasso biography, Surrealism section
Associated With: Pablo Picasso, Lead sectionQuote, Associated With: Pablo Picasso, Lead section
Following his collaboration with Diaghilev for the Russian ballet and influenced by Apollinaire, then André Breton, the artist gradually shifts to an art associated with surrealism beginning in 1924.
René Magritte (Wikipedia)
Movement Members: René Magritte, Rene Magritte, Wikipedia summary lead, movementQuote, Movement Members: René Magritte, Rene Magritte, Wikipedia summary lead, movement
was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts
The Treachery of Images (Wikipedia)
Movement Members: The Treachery of Images, Lead sectionQuote, Movement Members: The Treachery of Images, Lead section
The Treachery of Images (French: La Trahison des images) is a 1929 painting by Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte.
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Movement Members: Salvador Dalí
Andre Breton, as the Surrealist group's founder and self-appointed arbiter of membership, formally expelled Dali in 1934 after a staged "trial," treating him as having betrayed the movement's anti-fascist and anti-commercial politics through his refusal to explicitly denounce fascism and his open embrace of paid commercial and celebrity work, conduct Breton mockingly labeled with an anagram of Dali's own name suggesting greed. A dissenting view, held by Dali himself during his lifetime and shared by many later curators and historians, treats the expulsion as a political purism that cost the movement its most technically gifted and publicly recognized image-maker: Dali continued to identify himself as a Surrealist painter for the rest of his life regardless of the group's formal decision, and it is Dali's own paintings, above nearly every other Surrealist's, that most museum-going audiences today associate with the movement's name.
A dissenting reading, from an independent laneFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner), Gardner's Art Through the Ages, Cengage Learning
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