What is Surrealism?

To understand what Surrealism is, it is needed to explore some facts related to this artistic movement. The movement started in 1924 with The First Surrealist Manifesto by André Breton which emphasized the value of the unconscious, stressed the purpose of art – to research and to record the elusive truths lurking below the conscious mind. Breton and other surrealist artists regarded neurosis as a desirable state of permanent dreams and this art style as a freedom from constrains. Such attitude of surrealist was opposed to traditional standards. Their belief in casting off the logical view of reality, in dissolved boundary between the inner self and the outer self was rejected at that period of time.

Surrealism in art became an unedited rise of eroticism, violence and obsession. Surrealists were influenced by Dada movement, the Dadaists protected against the monstrosity of the world, the World War I, and they created an art that world didn't deserve. Dada anti-art was accepted by society that considered it to be an attack against Feudalism and the Church. Surrealism in it's turn inherited this anti-rationalist sensibility and was also influenced by the emerging psychoanalytic theories of Jung and Freud.

The leader of Surrealism identity Breton developed a political programme for the improvement of society, the members of the movement that failed to abide it's rules and conventions were flung out of it. Surrealism in art revealed in various media, including film, theatre, painting. Surrealists searched for skewed visions of imagination, they valued the unexpected and the accidental, chance associations – something that one marvelled and wondered at.

Among the techniques used by Surrealists were frottage (rubbing), grattage (scraping) and fumage (smoking). Despite of the nature of Surrealism art there were certain tendencies in the style, such as discovering imagery by chance, tampering with the vision. Surrealism painting is divided into Veristic Surrealism (the depiction of dreams) and Automatic Surrealism (created without rationally thinking). The masters of Veristic surrealism was Salvador Dali («The Persistence of Memory» (1931)known for his painting depicting a superior reality, disruption of normality through exaggeration and the juxtaposition of disparate images.

The style and somewhat modified techniques invented by Surrealists are widely used by today's artists. If you are looking for such artists and want to get acquainted with their paintings than you are at the right place. Visit www.klinkov.com website and the gallery located there with abstract, surreal, expressionists paintings created by contemporary artists, Valeriy Klinkov.