When it comes to surrealist artists, who do you think of first?
Surrealism occurred in the 1920’s-1930’s, after Dadaism. It’s important to mention Dadaism when it comes to Surrealism. Dadaism originated in 1916 and it is commonly said that a group of artists gathered in Zurich and founded Dadaism, a movement that manifests “anti-art”. Because of the war at the time, people had no expectations for the future, so they refused to create art using common and custom methods. Instead they used much more random ways of creating, through methods of collage. The content was also full of politics, culture, etc. For them, everything can become art, not just painting, sculpture, music, and dance. However, due to the differences in political and artistic ideas and the end of World War I, the Dadaists returned to their own countries and eventually turned to Surrealism.
After the end of World War I, people became anti-war and surrealist artists acted collectively and paid more attention to inner feelings/emotions. The term Surrealism was coined by French poet and playwright Guillaume Apollinaire who came up with the term in the play “The Breasts of Tiresias” to impress the audience. Although surrealism has a profound influence on the art world, its origin actually developed in the literary world. In 1924, French writer and poet André Breton used the term in a new art form. He wanted to truly liberate the mind and published a Surrealist Manifesto in Paris, defining surrealism as pure spiritual automatism, to express real thought processes. Thus, surrealism was born.
Surrealism discusses the contradiction between the human subconscious and the world. It is influenced by psychologist Sigmund Freud who believed that people are both conscious and unconscious. Consciousness is limited by reason and society, while unconsciousness consists of dreams and intuition. He believed that dreams help satisfy our desires, and people are framed a certain way because they are limited by society. His works “The Interpretation of Dreams”, “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality,” and “Totem and Taboo” put forward the concepts of self, id, and superego, providing a way for surrealists to further develop their ideas.
Breton published “Surrealism and Painting” in 1928, emphasizing the importance of painting within the movement. In order to allow their viewers to see the mix of fantasy and reality, surrealist artists used delicate yet realistic techniques to express what they saw in the world. People could see plausible yet illogical images in their works. They believed in dreams and the subconscious over reason. Surrealist artists will unconsciously paint on white paper, expressing their mental state mostly using printing methods, automatism, collage, etc. as forms of creative expression. It is common for these artists to put two unrelated things together in a box to stimulate the subconscious. In addition, it can be divided into two categories, one is about dreams and the other is “Surrealist automatism”, both of which are influenced by Freud.
The first surrealist exhibition was held in 1925. During this time, the surrealist movement had a certain foundation and later on, people saw instability in the works, due to the turbulent political and social changes. Salvador Dali’s “Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)” is one of his most famous masterpieces. Later, because of the Nazi Party’s discrimination, artists fled and eventually disbanded because they were difficult to defend. Artists that were representative of Surrealism include Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Joan Miró, Yves Tanguy, Méret Oppenheim, and so on.
Among them, Salvador Dali (1904-1989) was unknown, and he, Picasso, and Miró were considered to be the most representative Spanish Surrealist painters of the 20th century. Dali’s works have always been related to dreams and the subconscious. He used his painting skills to combine reality with dreams, and even tried various ways to put himself between the boundaries of dreams and reality, combining illogical things with reality. Before he was born, he had a deceased brother with the same name. His parents “reincarnated” Dali as his older brother, causing him to believe that he was simply a substitute for his brother. At the age of 17, his mother died of illness, which caused further psychological shock. Dali actively studied genres such as Classicism, Impressionism, and Cubism. In order to pay tribute to Picasso, he also painted “Figure on the Rocks”. He originally studied at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, but was suspended after causing trouble to other students.
He met some surrealists in Paris and observed some of Freud’s works, which had a profound influence on him. Unlike other surrealists, he expressed himself more in his works and invented the “paranoiac-critical method” that is in line with surrealism without losing its own characteristics. In addition to painting, he has also tried other mediums. “Un Chien Andalou” is a film co-authored by Danli and Buñuel. It consists of a montage of colleges and is an escape from common sense as it puts irrelevant things together (the perfect interpretation of surrealism).
In the surrealist group, he met Paul and Eluya’s wife, Carla Dali, who later became his lifelong partner. Dali Worshipped Carla and painted Carla as the Virgin in his religious paintings. In order to allow Dali to concentrate on painting, Carla took care of all of their chores. At the same time, he was also a master at marketing, so the two relied on each other’s abilities to sell their way to the United States. Unfortunately, Breton, the founder of Surrealism, argued that Dali’s works were deliberately created and didn’t conform to surrealism. In addition to political reasons, Breton ousted Dali from the group in 1934.
Dali also had many commercial developments, recording commercials, and also designed trademarks for jewelry and furniture, which transformed him from an artist into a household name. Because the couple had taken nerve-damaging drugs, Dali was unable to write in his later years. After Carla died, Dali stopped writing and wanted to commit suicide. He died on January 23, 1989. Surrealism has developed for nearly a decade and has had a profound influence on various artistic trends of thought such as film, stage, sculpture, and architecture. Literature, philosophy, and politics have also been influenced by Surrealism. The works of art in the visual field have had the most impact.
Dali’s related works can be seen everywhere online, or you might have accidentally stumbled upon surrealist works. From June 19 to September 26, 2021, hundreds of Dali’s real works will be exhibited in the 2nd and 3rd exhibition areas of Taipei’s Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, bringing together Dali’s works from various periods (a total price of 2.6 billion). The exhibition Mind of Genius - Salv ador Dali is sponsored by Media Sphere Communications, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, and CTBC Bank. At the heart of this series is Dali’s interpretation of Dante Alighieri’s “Heaven”, “Hell”, and “Purgatory”, three poetry collections divided into 7 exhibition areas. Even if you’re not planning on traveling, you can still check out the works!
*The exhibition timeframe during the epidemic is yet to be confirmed
Photo 1：The Son Of Man ©️ René Magritte
Photo 2 top left：La persistencia de la memoria©️ Salvador Dalí
Photo 2 left bottom：MAE WEST LIPS (MARILYN) ©️ Salvador Dalí
Photo 2 top right： The Gold of the Azure©️ Joan Miró
Photo 2 bottom right： Salvador Dalí portrait© Philippe Halsman
