Surrealism
Avant-Garde Art
Background
Surrealism began in the 1920's and is well known for its strange, often unsettling images. It largely started off in France, with the uprise of La Revelition surrealiste. Andre Brenton was thought to have started it, with some of his unnerving images. La Revelition surrealiste was a manifesto consisting of twelve issues lasting through the years 1924 until 1929. The manifesto dealt with surrealism as art, and many 'anti-art' themes. The journal also focused on the darker side of the human psyche, including violence, death and other depraved themes.
Major Players
Andre Breton was thought to be the one who "started" the surrealist movement along with Philippe Soupault who made similar work to Andre, as seen below. They both propelled the idea of surrealism and what Andre referred to sometimes as "anti-art". The main directors of La Revelition surrealiste were Pierre Naville and Benjamin Peret. Below is a surreal painting done by Philippe Soupault.
Examples of Surrealism
Departure of the Winged Ship
By Vladimir Kush, this painting is an example of modern surrealism, one of his most popular works. With no exact publication date, this image was likely pained around 1990, along with many others he did around that time.
Roots of Myself
Andrey Bobir is an up and rising surrealist on the website Deviantart. He has gained much popularity for his detailed, and off putting imagery. His page includes dozens of images, some very cool like this, and others that are just terrifying.
The Son of Man
A very popular surreal image published in 1964 by René Magritte, he was quoted when asked of the meaning of the picture, "It's something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see."
My favorite piece of surreal art?
After looking at many strange images through the depths of the internet, I found my favorite piece of surreal artwork. It's my favorite because of the over all concept, and how much there is to look at in the picture, as well as room for imagination. This piece was a close contender with the Son of Man painting by Magritte, but I do like this image more. This piece was done by modern surrealist Erik Johansson who takes photos, and using software such as photoshop to make these incredible images.