Surrealism emerged in the early 20th century. He is a kind of reincarnation of symbolism. The word "surrealism" comes from the French surrealite, which translates as "art of the supernatural."
Features of surrealism
Even before the emergence of Dadaism, features of surrealism appeared in the works of Giorgio De Chirico and Marc Chagall.
Art critics call Hieronymus Bosch and Francisco Goya with their strange and bizarre images as the predecessors of surrealism. Dadaism (from the French dada, which translates as "a wooden horse for children") also played an important role in the emergence of this trend. Representatives of this artistic movement rejected the orderliness and integrity of the composition. They lined up their pieces with random objects.
There is also no order in surreal compositions. Everything is random there. The emergence of surrealism is associated with the medical theory that existed at the beginning of the 20th century about the presence in the subconscious of a person of dark forces seeking to subjugate consciousness. Surrealist painters were very passionate about this theory, which is reflected in their paintings. With their painting, they tried to prove to the public that an unknown force, hidden in the depths of the brain, takes part in the creation of their works.
Figures of people and animals, various objects are displayed on the canvases of the surrealists as something unusual, reminiscent of strange visions or terrible dreams. These often frightening images can occur in the brain of a person under hypnosis or in a trance.
The most famous surrealist painters
The representatives of surrealism were the Belgian Rene Magritte, whose canvases are filled with strange images; the Spaniard Joan Miro, depicting amazing creatures and signs resembling ancient writing; the Frenchman Yves Tanguy with his bean-like, strange, frightening figures. In the spirit of surrealism, the Swiss artist Paul Klee also wrote for some time.
Of course, one of the brightest representatives of this trend is Salvador Dali. He was born in 1904 in Catalonia, studied at the Madrid Academy of Arts. The works of Sigmund Freud and the unusual painting of Giorgio De Chirico had a great influence on the formation of his author's style.
In 1929, Dali came to Paris, where he met with surrealist painters. In his paintings, strange images prevail, as if born of a sick fantasy of a patient in a psychiatric clinic. Despite their fantastic appearance, the figures on Dali's canvases seem to be alive, almost tangible. He depicts them so optically reliably.
Strange symbols related to his personal life, his feelings and experiences are constantly repeated in the artist's works. First of all, it is soft, as if made of cloth, watches, crutches, teeth, pianos and decaying human flesh, huge grasshoppers and ants, cutting tools.
In 1973, Salvador Dali founded his museum in his hometown of Figueres. Here he spent the last years of his life. The artist died in 1989.
Due to political divisions, supporter of totalitarianism Salvador Dali in 1939 severed ties with other surrealist painters. Despite the gap, he considered himself the true and only surrealist in the world.
