Early Twentieth Century, Part 5

Question 1: Discuss Surrealism.

Answer 1: Surrealism was an artistic movement based on the Freudian-derived notion that absolute truth and reality are contained inside the unconscious mind. In order to externalize the unconscious mind and thereby capture its truth onto an artistic medium, the surrealists employed various hallucination-inducing techniques, such as automatism, before painting. Surrealism was developed by Guillaume Apollinaire in 1917 and defined by Andre Breton in 1924. Its other notable exponents were Jean Arp, Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Man Ray, Andre Mason, Francis Picabia, René Magritte, Pierre Roy, Yves Tanguy, Picasso, Joan Miro, and Giorgio de Chirico. Surrealist art can be divided into two broad categories:Abstract: presenting a bizarre world of forms that suggest but do not clearly represent certain objects Figurative: placing easily recognizable objects in unfeasible arrangements or settings Surrealism also made two contributions to art: Biomorphic forms: abstract images that appear organic and livingFrottage: a technique of rubbing crayon or pencil over a surface (such as concrete) to capture its texture.

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Question 2: Identify (1) Henri Rousseau and (2) Giorgio de Chirico.

Answer 2: Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) was a French Post-Impressionist painter. His works, specifically The Dream (1910), laid the groundwork for the emergence of Surrealism. The Dream depicts a scene of undeniable irrationality—the juxtaposition of the civilized Victorian society against the uncivilized jungle—but presents it in a convincing manner. Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978) was the most influential Surrealist painter. His works are noted for his explorations of empty space and the nature of time. His seminal painting, Mystery and Melancholy of a Street (1914), uses large spaces to convey a sense of emptiness and foreboding. The work is irrational, even though it seems to be constructed rationally. It is this juxtaposition of the rational against the irrational that unsettles the viewer.

Question 3: Identify (1) Joan Miró and (2) Salvador Dalí.

Answer 3: Joan Miró (1893–1983) was an abstract Surrealist painter. His first Surrealist work, Catalan Landscape (subtitled The Hunter), illustrates his boyhood farm in the Spanish Basque country. A horizontal line bisects an eye in the middle of the painting, acknowledging the vanishing point. Miró’s most celebrated work, The Birth of the World (1925), was inspired by the Surrealist writers of the period as well as his own hunger-induced hallucinations. Compared with Brancusi’s The Beginning of the World, The Birth of the World depicts the emergence of form from chaos. Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) was a figurative Surrealist artist and the most visible member of the movement. A political and philosophical extremist, Dalí invented the painting method known as paranoiac-critical, in which the artist simulates the conditions of mental illness so he can better externalize unconscious truth. His works are known for their soft constructions, especially the soft watches present in The Persistence of Memory (1931). In Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (1936) and Premonition of Civil War (1936), Dalí represents social disasters using physical and psychological defects.

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