SURREALISM

 

BRASSAI

-INVOLUNTARY SCULPTURE 1933  

  The 1930's saw a new Paris based art movement that would be known by the term 'Surrealism'. The work conveys ideas inspired by the interest in the irrational, the truth above realism, and the revolutionary ideas that neurologist Sigmund Freud proposed, ideas about unlocking the power of the unconscious mind through dreams.

  One key figure of the movement could be 'Brassai', who's 1933 series 'Involuntary Sculpture' (pictured above) displays strong surrealist influence, portraying everyday objects in an unusual light, leading the viewers to question the purpose and original intent of these newly abstract items. A rather different but equally as significant artist who used Surrealist ideas by the name of Hans Bellmer produced a set of images titled 'Doll' in 1935. These images showed grotesque looking medical dolls shown in unusual and abstract poses, and it has been suggested that this particular look was Bellmer's response to the fair haired stereotype of the Nazi orientated 'aryan' body, an idea which he will have produced from growing up in a German dominated area of Poland in 1902.

HANS BELLMER

-THE DOLL 1936

  Visual motifs of Surrealism could include reoccurring images of clocks, like in the artwork of Salvador Dali where he uses the idea to convey ideas about Einstein's  theories about time being relative rather than fixed. Draws and cupboards are also a running theme through some surrealist photography and artwork, suggesting the secrets that can be hidden away or unknown to the viewer apart from when used as a metaphor visually to convey the idea about being able to discover further information the subject doesn't want to be shown in the open. This can be seen in such works as Claude Cahun's 'The Closet' in which she portrays the hidden sexual orientations that are only made public when the subject chooses them to be.

CLAUDE CAHUN

-THE CLOSET 1932

  In 1924 André Breton published 'The Surrealist Manifesto' in which he attempted to give a detailed analysis of Surrealism and explain its influences such as the Dada movement. The manifesto defines surrealism as
"Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express -- verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner -- the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by the thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern."