Surrealism
Surrealism
originated in France in the 1920s. In the words of
its main theorist, the writer Andre Breton, its aim
was to 'resolve the previously contradictory
conditions of dream and reality', and the ways in
which this was achieved varied widely. Artists
painted unnerving and illogical scenes with
photographic precision, created strange creatures
from collections of everyday objects, or developed
techniques of painting which would allow the
unconscious to express itself. The Surrealists were
particularly Interested in psychoanalysis and
the ideas of Freud. Their pictures, while figurative,
represent an alien world, whose images range from
dream-like serenity to nightmarish fantasy.
Representative
painters:
Bellmer, Brauner, De Chirico, Dali, Delvaux,
Ernst,
Gorky, Magritte, Matta, Miro, Nash,
Tanguy,
Wadsworth