2024-04-23
For many art lovers, the first thought connected with Surrealist art is Salvador Dalí's painting entitled ''The Persistence of Memory''. The melting clocks against the backdrop of a seaside landscape do not easily let themselves be forgotten. However, it is worth knowing that the Surrealists expressed themselves in many different ways, painting, sculpting, photographing, directing films and writing.
The term surrealism was first used at the beginning of the 20th century, as early as 1903 Guillaume Apollinaire uses it as the subtitle of his play: ''The Breasts of Tiresias: a Surrealist Drama''. However, the first tangible harbinger of a new direction in art was André Breton's 1924 ''Manifeste du surréalisme'' (Manifesto of Surrealism). In it, the author criticizes the realist stance in art and reflects on the function and significance of the imagination and the dream. Interestingly, a rival manifesto by Yvan Goll is also produced in the same year. A dispute erupts over the right to the term ''surrealism" which Breton eventually wins.
The Surrealist painters aimed to "express visually the inner perception". They wanted to provoke and create absurd images, to explore what are the possibilities of the human mind. The most prominent painters of the trend can undoubtedly include Salvador Dalí, Francis Picabia, Giorgio de Chirico and Osvaldo Licini.
''The Andalusian Dog'' is considered to be the first Surrealist film. The director of the work was Luis Buñuel. He wrote the screenplay together with Salvador Dalí. It is an oneiric tale made up of several unconnected scenes designed to shock the viewer.
Man Ray is the most famous representative of the surrealist in photography in this field. His works were created in a studio, where he worked for hours in order to correct the lighting and interpret the model. The viewer sees surprising combinations when looking at his photographs, for example, the woman's exposed back is reminiscent of a cello (by adding two "f"-shaped cut-outs).