Surrealism and Dreams

The style of Surrealism developed in Paris, and as well as many other styles in art that started being opposed to some changes and events in political and social life, it originated partly as a reaction to the World War I, positivism, realism, reason, logic, and the 19th-c. belief in progress. The activity of German Surrealist movement coincided with Dada, the Paris branch, for two or three years. The staring point of Surrealism is considered to be the publication of Andre Breton's Manifeste du Surréalisme in 1924. This publication resulted from Breton's examination of the nature of lyricism, his interest in the ideas of Freud. In his manifesto Breton provided a number of often-quoted definitions.

Surrealism influences various media: painting, sculpture, cinema, etc. In painting the movement was marked with a number of approaches, styles, and techniques, for instance, Ernst's frottage and collage, Dali's ‘paranoiac-critical method’, Magritte's veristic study of the relationship between the object and its representation, etc. The style of Surrealism is recognized due to it's method that exposes psychological truth by stripping ordinary objects of their normal significance. The characteristic features of the style are a combination of the depictive, the abstract, and the psychological.

Surrealism prints were exhibited in the 1930s. In 1936 London International Surrealist Exhibition was organized, and Museum of Modern Art in New York showed the exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism. Two year later a new International Surrealist Exhibition was held at the Beaux-arts Gallery in Paris. More than 60 artists took part in it. In 1942 the First Papers of Surrealism in New York was organized. There were two International Surrealist Exhibitions in Paris in 1947 and 1959, and Surrealist Intrusion in the Enchanters' Domain exhibition in New York in 1960.

There are different opinions as for the end of the movement. Someone consider that Surrealism was disbanded by World War II, other consider the death of André Breton to be the end of Surrealism. However, since the 1960s the style experienced some changes, it was combined with a technique called mischtechnik, and this style was called "veristic Surrealism". During the 1980s Surrealism appeared again in the form of underground artistic opposition movement known as the Orange Alternative. In 2002 the Met in New York City held a show («Desire Unbound»), and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris a show called «La Révolution Surréaliste». Thus, we can see that the movement's end was not the end of the style development. Surrealism artworks are created these days, they are exhibited, viewed and obtained. You can also take part in this process by browsing the site of contemporary Ukrainian painter V. Klinkov. The site contains some interesting facts regarding the artist's course of life and creative development, as well as his works selection.