surrealism | avant garde

surrealism:
-(unlike dada) highly organized group of artists rallied around andre breton
-adopted basic premises of psychoanalysis
-objective reality of the dream
-automatism, hallucinatory & irrational thought associations, recollected dream images offered means of liberating the psyche from enslavement to reason
-automatism: process of tapping unconscious by writing in trance-like state & registering involuntary, vivid images that tumbled out
-subconscious mind, repressed desire, imagery of dreams

-devoted to individualism & alienation --> no stylistic consistency
-two major directions: automatism & illusionistic dream imagery

first surrealist manifesto- andre breton:
-no fixed method for analyzing dreams
-chance: an obscure divinity
-believe in future resolution of dream & reality --> surreality
-the marvelous is beautiful
-surrealism: pure psychic automatism by which it is intended to express the true function of thought
thought dictated by absence of all control exerted by reason & moral preoccupations
belief in superior reality of certain forms of association, omnipotence of dream

• reconstructing fragments of humanity & psyche
• investment in the erotic, eros, love
• "if you love Love, you'll love surrealism"

photograph of a "waking dream" seance- man ray
artist as clairvoyant
primitive space of individual/unconscious

• many dada members moved over to surrealism after dada broke up

• andre breton- founder of surrealism

-works were mainly text
-introduced freud's ideas into surrealist circle
-travels to vienna to meet w freud

on dreams- sigmund freud:
-theories were instrumental in forming modern concepts of human nature & motivation
-writings on dreams & unconscious changed traditional ideas about origins of visual imagery
-dream-thoughts are represented symbolically through similes & metaphors, includes recollections of impressive experiences
-psychial complex: portions represent foreground & background, conditions, digressions, illustrations, evidence, counter-arguments
-reproduce logical connection by approximation in time & space
anti-rational vision but different than dada

• dereve- marvelous chance encounters
• trying to find enchantment in disenchanted world in aftermath of WWI

luis bunuel & salvador dali, un chien andalou 1928

parisian surrealist group in 1929 around a painting by magritte
eyes close= anti-seeing

-not stylistically coherent
-shared set of ideas & tactics
-anti-retinal: rejecting privilege of visual, alternative forms of seeing (in unconscious)

ad in the surrealist revolution no. 1 (dec 1924)
"we are at the eve of a revolution. you can take part it too"

the surrealist centrale- man ray 1924

• pseudo-scientific aspect

^exquisite corpse drawings published in la revolution surrealiste 1927
collective drawing practice
invades rational
constructed in fragmented way

• automatic writing & drawing
• alternative logics

la revolution surrealiste
-would be revolutionary artistic practice
-transforming experience of the world

andre masson: 
-abstract calligraphy: rhythm of swift lines or cursive brush marks generated images of violence & dramatic encounters of form

untitled (automatic drawing)- andre masson 1924

• rejecting rational = rejecting modernity?
• investment in meandering, collective, seeking connections

the lugubrious game- salvador dali 1929
"lugubrious" = looking sad & dismal
illusionistic painting, dreamscapes, fluid, continuous line

the figure- andre masson 1927
liquid glue & sand

joan miro:
-derived forms from childhood memory
-didn't embrace trompe-l'oeil techniques
-automatism

the kiss- joan miro 1924
line references organic life forms
abstract?

birth of the world- miro 1925
abstract

the key of dreams- rene magritte 1935
seemingly didactic
abstract meaning?
dissociation of image & text

max ernst:
-dada --> surrealism
-frottage technique: textures by rubbing objects & surfaces on sheets of paper

little machine constructed by minimax dadamax in person- ernst 1919-20
uses type to create mechanical portraits of himself

self-constructed little machine- ernst 1919-20
uses type to create mechanical portraits of himself

man ray: 
-dadaist --> surrealist
-photography was ideal medium to literalize dreams

minotaur- man ray 1934
double seeing
objective instrument used to create abstract images

untitled- man ray 1920

anatomies- man ray 1930

• women's bodies used a lot in surrealism

the primacy of matter over thought- man ray 1929

• critique of modernism as philosophical
• interested in bringing art back to every day, here & now

the world at the time of the surrealists 1929

new mexico published in La R.S. no 9-10

andre breton's home in 1960
interest in the fetish & created own fetishes through surrealist objects

georges bataille

dark, nihilistic, violent dimension

rejection of values of western humanism

acephale- society & journal; interest in human sacrifice

vs. 

andre breton

beauty, erotic drives, aesthetics

suspended ball- alberto giacometti 1930-31
kinetic sculpture
might be mimicking sexual relationships
new: you have to touch it in order for it to move

disagreeable object- alberto giacometti 1931
strange fetishes, taboo desires

• objective chance: experience of chance on finding a marvelous objects; chance & fate

iron mask (that giacometti finds) (photograph)- man ray
mask that soldiers wear?

slipper spoon (that breton finds) from breton's novel l'amour fou
"cinderella ashtray"

invisible object- giacometti 1934

object of symbolic function- salvador dali 1931
invented use value for objects
imagined function

• uncanny: the familiar returning to you in a strange guise 

la poupee series- hans bellmer c. 1934
animate + inanimate
assembling doll parts & photographing them in weird ways

photograph printed in minoutaure 1937
locomotive w plants grown over
motion & stasis