What is Surrealism

A. Surrealism was one of the most influential movements in art and literature to come out of the 20th century. Although it was at its height in the years between the two world wars, it's legacy can still be felt today.

Q. What does the term Surrealism mean
A. The movement was born out of a union of Cubism and Dada. The term surrealisme was coined by the poet and playwright Guillaume Apollinaire in 1917. It began to be used in the 1920s in relation to a group of poets, artists and photographers in Paris, who came under the banner of the Manifeste du surrealisme (1924) by the poet and theoretician Andre Breton. He described Surrealism as 'Pure psychic Automatism, by which it is intended to express verbally, in writing or in any other way, the true process of thought. It is the dictation of thought, free from the exercise of reason and every aesthetic or moral preoccupation.' Got it

Q. Who were the main players
A.

• Poets: Andre Breton, Simone Breton, Paul Eluard, Gala Eluard, Robert Desnos, Roger Vitrac and Pierre Reverdy
• Writers: Michel Leiris, Georges Lambour, Antonin Artaud and Raymond Queneau
• Artists and photographers: Max Ernst, Man Ray, Hans Arp, Lee Miller, Yves Tanguy, Georges Malkine, Andre Masson, Rene Magritte, Salvador Dale, Pierre Roy, Paul Delvaux and Joan Mire.

There were many others whose work was either influenced by or shows great sympathy with the aims of Surrealism, but who were never members or close associates of the group.

Q. And their influences
A.

• Automatic writing (Automatism): a fashionable pastime in the days when spiritualism was a major force. The Surrealists saw automatic writing as a manifestation of the dream-state or the subconscious, rather than anything metaphysical as did spiritualists.
• Sigmund Freud: Freud's emphasis on the subconscious was of paramount importance to the theories expounded in the manifesto.
• Literature: particularly Charles-Pierre Baudelaire, Marquis de Sade, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Gerard de Nerval, Alfred Jarry, Isidore Ducasse, Guillaume Apollinaire and Arthur Rimbaud.
• Art: they especially appreciated the work of Paolo Ucello and Gustave Moreau as well as (then) living artists such as Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia and Giorgio de Chirico.
• Communism: Breton and others joined the French Communist Party.

Q. What was their stance and what did they do
A. Surrealism sought to free artists of all kinds from accepted means of expression. The unconscious was to be the source of inspiration, and they were to create according to their subconscious mind and vision. It developed in two ways: first, by creating pure fantasy, and second, elaborate reconstructions of the dream-world. Strange juxtapositions of images or objects are essential to the work. Despite the dogmatism of Breton and others - expulsions and stormings-out were not uncommon - its legacy is one of liberation in the ways in which artists can express themselves.

Q. How long did it last
A. Surrealism began to decline in influence in Europe and North America after World War II, as Breton became the object of a great deal of criticism. New philosophies and movements in the arts, such as Existentialism in literature and gestural abstraction in painting, began to take its place. However, it gained new adherents in Latin America in the post-War period, and Breton continued to make his presence felt right up to his death in 1966. Its legacy is that surreal images have become part and parcel of our everyday environment, from advertising to comedy.

Q. In short
A. A quote from Lautreamont could be said to sum Surrealism up: 'as beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table'.

For more on Surrealism, try the following sites:
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/surrealism/
http://www.bway.net/~monique/history.htm

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By Simon Smith