Surrealism: Am I dreaming?

I thought choosing a single art movement to write an essay about would be tricky, but I found it surprisingly easy as the movement I have chosen is so inspiring and interesting to me that it jumped out at me the second I came across it. That movement is Surrealism. Surrealism  was a cultural movement that began in the early 20th century, as an off-shoot of Dadaism, that brought together artists in hunt for expression of the unconscious . The art often has absurd subject matter, and is the visual representation of the subconscious  Many artists created pieces of art inspired by their dreams.

I like the imaginative and crazy art pieces that have been created for the movement; they were something that hadn't really been seen before. It was a major contrast to the more traditional portraiture and more photo-realistic pieces of art that came before it. I find it much more inspiring than anything that is a simple representation of something. The movement was all about the expression of the mind and the release of imagination in an art form, removing yourself from the reality of the world around you and embracing the creativity bursting from our unconscious. Many artists painted the things in their dreams, because in your dreams there are no rules, no boundaries, everything is possible and anything can happen. 

The artists of the movement wanted above all else a free flow from their unconscious to their art. I love the lack of constraints that this art movement brought with it, being able to freely express any idea or thought into an art form without the need to limit the potential. Creating a piece of art with elephant’s heads being replaced with musical instruments at one point in time would have been ridiculous and completely unheard of but surrealism brought a more creative approach to art in general.

The idea of letting your imagination roam free and not holding anything back intrigues me. I like how it gives artists the freedom to express their ideas in any shape or form, rather than restricting themselves to what is around them in the real world. It gives people the ability to express exactly what is in their mind and share it with the world which is something that hadn’t really been done before.

RESEARCH MATERIALS

As well as looking at key artists such as Salvador Dali I will use a range of reference materials such as books from libraries and online sites such as:

Surrealism (Taschen Basic Art Series) by Cathrin Klinsohr-Leroy

Manifestoes of Surrealism by AndrC Breton

www.surrealism.co.uk

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-surrealism.htm

http://www.gosurreal.com/surreal.htm