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Greetings and salutations, deviants! Today, I bring to you the second edition of the monthly Art History Spotlight series!
As you know from our last edition of Impressionism, The Art History Spotlight Series will be exploring various movements in art, the technique used therein, major artists behind it and it's influence on dA!
The second edition focuses on Surrealism, as decided by this poll.
I'm happy this was chosen, not just because it's such a popular and recent movement, but can be misrepresented and confused often.
So with no further ado, I present to you...
Surrealism
[sur-re-al-iz-uhm]
as defined by Merriam-Webster
: the principles, ideals, or practice of producing fantastic or incongruous imagery or effects in art, literature, film, or theater by means of unnatural or irrational juxtapositions and combinations
In layman's terms, surrealism focuses more on subject and less on technique. The subject matter is meant to represent the unconscious mind and the real functioning of thought.
Origins
The Surrealist movement was founded by the French writer André Breton (1896-1966) in the early 1920s. Based heavily on Sigmund Freud's theories, he described Surrealism as "pure psychic automatism" in his Surrealist Manifestos, published in 1924 and 1929, respectively.
André Breton
Spawning from the Dadaism movement of World War I, Breton maintained that the Surrealist movement was intended to be revolutionary first and foremost; an anti-war reaction against the "rationalism" that the Surrealists believe to be the horrific cause of World War I. Surrealism differs from its equally anti-war predecessor Dadaism in the vein that it focused on the positive as opposed to the negative.
Despite the seeming randomness of the movement, they rejected the thought of madness--as Salvador Dalí said, "There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad."
Surrealists met in cafes and played collaborative drawing games such as Exquisite Corpse, and chatted about the politics of the movement. Prominent surrealists included Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, Joan Miro, Andre Masson to name just a few.
The prevalent theme of automatism, or action without active thought, is the core principle of this entire movement-- presenting a dream-like portrayal of the unconscious mind.
Technique
There is an enormous amount of Surrealist techniques and games that it would be ludicrous to list them all here. Wikipedia has a wonderful list for your perusal.
- Exquisite Corpse was a game played by Surrealists when they got together in cafes (a popular activity) that started with written word, where several people would each write a phrase on a sheet of paper, fold the paper to conceal part of it and pass it to the next person who'd do the same. This evolved into imagery, where instead of a phrase, someone would draw or paint something, and pass it along.
- Use of a drawing tool over a textured surface to create a "rubbing", known as frottage.
- Scraping paint, dry or otherwise, off a canvas. This technique is known as grattage.
- Decalcomania, a way to transfer prints or paints to another material, such as pottery or another canvas. Often, a piece of paper, foil, wax paper or another material is placed on a wet canvas and transferred elsewhere.
- Automatic drawings, or free-association drawings, where one allows his/her hand to draw absent-mindedly with no conscious guidance. Like free association writing, surrealist believed this to stir up creative energy, and relay the unconscious mind.
- Involuntary sculpture, like automatic drawings, is the unconscious manipulation of a medium to create a sculpture.
There is no right or wrong way to create a surrealist piece, so long as it is a representation of the unconscious mind.
Surrealism from the Masters
Joan Miro - Carnival of Harlequinn
Max Ernst - The Eye of Silence
Giorgio de Churico - The Disquieting Muse
Salvador Dali - The Premonition of Civil War
Andre Masson - Automatic Drawing
Surrealism on dA
The introspective and illustrious works of zancan
The deliciously bizarre rodulfo
Mature Content
The rousing and dreamlike works of Mihai82000
Other wonderful surrealist works
:thumb28392425:
Mature Content
Mature Content
Stay Tuned! This isn't the last you've heard of surrealism...
References
www.buddingartist.co.uk/Surrea…
www.surrealist.com/
www.artlex.com/ArtLex/s/surrea…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surreali…
www.huntfor.com/arthistory/C20…
:devflash-fic-month:
Oh hey
So, I realized that I sort of slipped out of the volunteer position like a thief in the night with very little (ok, absolutely none) commentary. Sorry about that!
It became super difficult to keep up with my backload of notes (I had 500+!) as well as tying up my job before maternity leave, getting things set up for the baby and preparing ourselves for the move. It wasn't a realistic division of my time, so sadly, I had to step away yet again.
As many of you have noticed, I no longer feature Daily Deviations, so be sure to bring your suggestions over to the traditional art Community Volunteers; the most current list found at :devcommunityr
What a wonderful world...
Last night's critique night was a lot of fun, thanks to everyone that attended, presented and critiqued!
It was definitely an intimate session with no more than 20 at any given time, which was intimate, cozy and most of all super friendly.
If you haven't seen the awesomesauce articles posted by my cohorts SRaffa (https://www.deviantart.com/sraffa) and deshrubber (https://www.deviantart.com/deshrubber) this past week on projecteducate (https://www.deviantart.com/projecteducate) stop by and take a gander.
Thanks again everyone for a great time, and hopefully we'll do it again! :aww:
Come into the light...
For if thou dost not know about Traditional Art Project Educate and tomorrow's critique night, THEN THOU MUST BE IN THE DARK.
%projecteducate (https://www.deviantart.com/projecteducate) :iconprojecteducate::iconprojecteducate: :iconprojecteducate:
There you will find fun polls, great informative articles, features and general traditionals know-how, so brush aside those pencil shavings and come and smell the turpenoid (not too closely, of course. We support well ventilated arting.)
TOMORROW NIGHT at 6 PM EST we will be hosting the PE TradART Critique event in #CommunityRelations, so be sure to come by and have your traditional work studied, analyzed and discussed!
Please note
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Sorry, I'm french and I don't understand how I can post my pics for the contest?