SURREALIST ART

1924 - 1965

If Dada redefined art as an intellectual exercise, Surrealism redefined how we expressed thought. Dada artists slipped easily into this new art form. For them, the journey between conscious and subconscious was a short trip.

As the work of Sigmund Freud brought the subconscious world to light, the Surrealist Manifesto, written by Andre Breton in 1924, questioned the reality of rational thought. Where Freud sought to cure neurosis, the Surrealists celebrated it. Yvan Goll published his own Surrealist Manifesto in the same year and clashed openly with Breton. Breton won the battle and became the leader of this quarrelsome clique.

Surrealist art became a world where subconscious thoughts replaced facts and reality. Clocks no longer had to be solid objects, they could melt into liquid forms. People and animals took on bizarre new shapes. It was a world of surprise where things were totally out of sync with real life. Surrealists let their imaginations become their reality. They also exhibited a strange sexuality. Many Surrealists admired the sexually explicit French philosopher Marquis de Sade.

Where the Romantics had once painted lyrical landscapes, Max Ernst painted a forest of bizarre, abstract trees in "Forest and Dove."

Where Monet had once painted the serene "Water Lilies," Andre Masson now gave us visions of his subconscious mind in his "Automatic Drawing."

Famed Surrealist, Salvador Dali once said, “The difference between a madman and me is I am not mad.” A rational world had become mad around him and dissolved in repeated world wars. Why should artists trust reality when their subconscious minds offered so many more intriguing possibilities?