Surrealism Notes

Surrealism emerged in the early 20th century, producing complex and often indiscernible artwork.
Salvador Dali's "The Persistence of Memory" exemplifies the odd and complex nature of surrealist paintings.
The meaning and purpose of Surrealist works are often difficult to understand, sometimes intentionally so.
Surrealism was influenced by Freudian psychology, exploring the struggle between the rational and subconscious mind.
Surrealist artists delved into ideas of irrationality and dream analysis, influenced by Freud's theories.

World War I and Freudian psychology influenced the birth of surrealism.
World War I's unprecedented devastation shook the world, impacting artists.
Freud's theories focused on the struggle between the rational and subconscious minds, with desires for love and power.
Surrealist artists viewed the devastation of World War I as a result of rationalism.
They sought to explore the subconscious mind as an alternative to the perceived failures of rational thinking.
Andre Breton wrote the Manifesto of Surrealism, based on Freudian theory, influencing many artists.

Automatism encompasses techniques used to create surrealist works.
Gradiage: A technique where the artist places a canvas over a textured surface and scrapes off paint to create an image.
- Max Ernst's "The Hoard" (1927) exemplifies gradage.
- The artist lays the canvas over a textured surface (e.g., leaves, bed sheets).
- Paint is poured on the canvas, and a palette knife is used to scrape off excess paint.
- The resulting image reflects the texture of the surface underneath.
The artist then uses their imagination to find images within the resulting textures, similar to finding shapes in clouds.
Artists sought to remove themselves from traditional art conventions, allowing art creation to be a journey of imagination and exploration.

Salvador Dali was influenced by Sigmund Freud's theories of the subconscious and dream analysis.
Dali's paintings often depicted his dreams, including disturbing nightmares.
His works exemplify the irrationality associated with surrealist art, exploring foreign aspects of the subconscious mind. For example, "The birth of liquid desires".

Moreau was fascinated by children's art due to its simplicity and purity.
He admired the unvarnished quality of children's art, free from preconceived notions and traditions.
Moreau wished to "unlearn" his academic training to return to the pure artwork of children.
He used doodling as a method to develop new compositions through automatism, leading to the formation of images.