Surrealism and its Inspiration - Research Paper Example

Surrealism and its Inspiration Surrealism is a form of art that emerged in the 1920s and was unique. Andre Breton, who indulged in poetry, expressed the initial sediments that led to the development of surrealism. In his opinion, artists needed to adopt a new form of expression that allowed the subconscious mind to control the works of an artist. Previously, artists relied on the ideas of the conscious mind to express themselves. Several artists joined this new art movement. The pieces of art that resulted from the surrealist attitude require a lot of interpretation from the society. From such images full of disorder, it is not easy for a viewer to make interpretations and see order in them. This paper will consider how much order one can find in the artwork of some of the surrealist artists. In addition, the paper will consider whether the unrealistic images portrayed have meaning in real life. An analysis of Andre Breton’s description of surrealism because he developed the entire concept will give an insight of the real surrealistic art. Breton was a poet and novelist. There are unique things that happened to Breton that led to the development of surrealism. When he was studying medicine, he got an introduction into Sigmund Freud. Freud was a psychoanalyst who had developed theories explaining the potential of the mind to carry out multiple amazing functions. From these theories, Breton adopted new attitude of writing. Having realized that the mind had potential that he imagined, Breton explored new ways of writing (Sepp and Lester 78). The second influence came from the Dadaists who influenced his thinking. He defied the dada movement later because he wanted an art movement that allowed him to express himself without the need to reason. In 1924, he managed to describe surrealism fully in a manifesto. This manifesto emphasized the power of imagination. He made it clear that surrealism sought to appreciate the creations of the mind. He detailed how an artist possessed the ability to bring out the real things in an unreal way. Through this attitude, an artist did not just need to express what people perceived to be real. On the contrary, an artist could express the unknowns of the mind in art (Sepp and Lester 78). When Breton designed the cover of ‘Young Cherry Trees Secure against Hare’s surrealism,’ he brought out a strong message for the audience. In the cover, he transformed the commonly known symbol for freedom that bears the face of a woman and replaced it with his own. He realized that he could use what people had prior knowledge to create an impact. He was advocating for the liberty that artists needed. He was defying the old way of thinking that expected artists to express issues that people knew. It is with this thinking that he founded surrealism (Sepp and Lester 78). With such thinking in the artist’s mind, disorder may result because odd ideas from the subconscious mind come out. One of the famous surrealists of the time was Salvador Dali. Dali started out as a poet but diversified to being an author of books and painter. Dali was a vocal artist who defended his wild pieces of work and asserted that he did not need to understand them himself. As long as they were coming from his subconscious mind, he did not have to hold back from expressing himself. As a result, Dali produced work that amazes anyone seeking to appreciate his pieces of work. One of the images that has evoked the imagination and attention of people over time is the painting Dali named the ‘persistence of memory’. In this painting, he portrayed soft watches hanging on a rock, on a tree and on another surface that is not very clear. The unique thing about these watches is that they are melting. The persistence of memory attracted a lot of interpretation and different opinions on the interpretation. The fact that watches were melting seemed to suggest something that was continuously happening to time. Many guessed that the painting was a reflection of the relativity between space and time. However, Dali declared there was no connection with Einstein’s views of space and time. The image presented some real things in an unreal way. These could only find a place in the subconscious mind. The things depicted in the painting had no place in the conscious mind. However, the real essence of surrealism was to create some connection between unrealities that exist only in dreams and fantasy and what happens in real life. The artists create disorder but close examination reveal to reveal order may not be an easy venture. It portrays the landscape of Portlligat that reflects Dali’s neighborhood in the Mediterranean coast. Dali was greatly fond of the area in which he grew up and reflected in his paintings. He depicts the cliffs and shaggy appearance of the rock. The painting also depicts soft watches flowing slowly on the cliff and rocks. On the upper right hand, features of the landscape appear. The cliffs have a hard outline and crystal light of the sky appears. However, the landscape is not rich in other features and depicts emptiness like a desert. Dali provides no clues of distance or time of the day and gives no implications of the temperatures. The landscape features appear only in the upper third of the painting. The rest of the painting contains the melting watches. One of the watches hangs over a truncated branch. The branch is part of an old olive tree. Second watch melts at the edge of the painters hand while the third drops from an object that lies on the beach. Dali then paints the fourth watch filled with ants. Two of the watches have ants and a fly. Different people interpret the painting differently. The softness of the watches and their ability to flow are fundamental. Watches bring out the concept of time. Usually, watches are usually rigid. In this case, flowing sets apart two different aspects. It makes the real time and the machine appear as two different things. However, considering the paranoiac attitude in his painting, the watches portray the subconscious view of time (Dali Museum 3). Whether we like it or not, our minds store aspects of the past as memory. Unconsciously, the human brain associates time with memories. The melting of watches over the sandy beach reflects the elapsing of time. The fact that the watches can melt down is enough reason to question the relevance of time and watches. In the surrealist spirit, it becomes difficult to unravel the exact meaning of the work. Every person sees it from a unique perspective. Dali explored themes from his subconscious mind. From an analysis of his working, it becomes evident that probably in the middle of the disorder is some order. One begins to realize that ideas from his subconscious mind were flowing into the work. Probably Dali never understood the real meaning of time elapsing. Maybe he attached time with dreams and memories. In other paintings, he painted weird images on sexuality. From one of his books, he confessed that sexual matters caused him to hesitate a little. Surrealism sought to express ideas that defined man’s spirit and mind in its fullness. Out of the complexity of man’s spirit, one expects things that are not easy to understand and this explains why Dali’s works remain amazing. In a different piece of work, the ‘Andalusian dog’ Dali brought out the real surrealism concept. From the title, it brings out this concept because it reflects a dog which appears nowhere in the images. The images depict terror and violence. The surrealists revealed that the film meant nothing but in real sense, the images compel an individual to associate the image with some meaning on watching it severally (Artists Blank Canvas). The first portrays a razor tampering with the eye of a woman and on slicing it, the contents of the eye bursting out. At first glance, the illustration is so scaring but the viewer get blinding by another image. In real sense, the eye belongs to a donkey. This scene is symbolic although the Dali and Bunuel claim that it has no symbolism (Weidemann and Dali 124). The images in the film lack any form of connection. They represent a dream sort of and nothing needs to be real or connected in any dream. The images create all sorts of illusions. There are scenes representing a boy cycling and finally falls with his box. In a different scene, the boy has a hole in his arm and ants are moving into the hole. The surrealists present another scene where the boy shoots his father. There are sensual images of a nude woman. The film also explores the sex theme. All images in this film portray unrelated violence and in between are time lapses. Rationality is greatly lacking and this supports the artists’ idea that a film may be a collection of images from a dream. Nothing needs to add up. Events flow and time passes. The film has received criticism and varying interpretations. All these are right because it is but a dream and depicts the true spirit of surrealism. In conclusion, visual arts have had a significant growth since the early 1900s. As presented in this paper, Surrealism, just like other visual arts has had an interesting history. Worth noting, it is evident that understanding the themes behind surrealistic arts may not be easy. This is because the themes do not appear on the surface. So much disorder seems to appear for interpreter. Since surrealists communicate what stays in the subconscious mind, they present those appreciating art with a challenge to try to make out some of order from the disorder created. In the spirit of Dali, one of the fiercest surrealists, the artist may not even understand the meaning of his work and the audience may not need to either. The pieces of work from surrealists may be weird because they represent a very free form of expression. Wyrick, Jean. Steps to Writing Well. New York: Cengage Learning, 2010. Print. Dali Museum. Clocking in with Salvador Dali. Web, 28th September, 2012. Weidermann, Christiane and Dali, Salvador. Salvador Dali. New York: Prestel, 2007. Print. Artists Blank Canvas. The Famous Spanish Surrealist Artist – Salvador Dali, 2009. Web, 28th September 2012, from http://www.artistsblankcanvas.co.uk/Art-Articles/Salvador-Dali.html Sepp, Hans R, and Lester E. Embree. Handbook of Phenomenological Aesthetics. Dordrecht: Springer, 2010. Print. Read More