Surrealism was formed in the 1910s and was created by a group of artists, writers and intellectuals who wanted to explore their sub-conscious and conscious minds to open up their ideas and imagination to all possibilities. It had evolved from the Dada movement and had principles and elements of Cubism and Expressionism also in the mix of the movement. Surrealism had come in many mediums such as literature, paintings, photography, sculpture, theater and film.
The surrealists had denied the conscious mind of the real world and political agendas and wanted to delve further into the sub-concious and create their own worlds in their paintings from what they could see and find from the physical world . They didn’t want to know what was going on at the time and shut out the real world to just create art that expressed their inner un-subconscious imagination and inner un-subconscious emotions.
There is an element of nature in surrealism as pictured in many famous surrealist artists work in different ways and different interpretations such as landscapes, animals etc. One well known artist such as Salvador Dalli had re-curing themes of ants and eggs while on the other hand another artist surrealist Max Ernst was obsessed with birds.
The style had these elements and principles of being done in:
” hyper-realistic style in which objects were depicted in crisp detail and with the illusion of three-dimensionality, emphasizing their dream-like quality. The colour in these works was often either saturated (Dalí) or monochromatic (Tanguy), both choices conveying a dream state.” Artists such as Miró and Ernst used various techniques to create unlikely and often outlandish imagery including collage, doodling, frottage, decalcomania, and grattage. Artists such as Arp also created collages as stand-alone works.”
Salvador Dalli also collaborated with Walt Disney and created a surrealistic animation that is very interesting and conveys a lot of Dalli’s inner thoughts and emotions on animation which is yet another medium Dalli exposed to Surrealism.
DADAISM VS SURREALISM
These two artworks are done by Max Ernst the only differences is that the first one is from the dadaism period and the second one is surrealism. In the dadaist painting there are flatter colours and there’s a certain minimalism in how much imagery there is, Also typical to dadaism images have been juxtaposed with photographs and drawings in a collage. Though on the other hand when you look at the surrealist painting it has far more detail and true to surrealism a dream like painting with many 3D realistic figures in it and bright colours such as green, red, yellow and orange adding to the dream like effect. What both paintings have in common though is that both during the time had a shock effect due to the fact that they included imagery that was out of this world and ”unimaginable” which is exactly what both wanted to achieve.
Surrealism’s Influence on Graphic Design and Today
This is a modern graphic photo manipulation showing surrealism’s influence on today’s modern Graphic Design community. As you can see this is a collage using juxto-posed images such as the woman, the sky and the men with the funny little hats, the tears and the birds as well. The birds are very interestingly added as tears along with the bird imagery which was also used and very common in Max Ernst’s surreal paintings. There are elements of photography and photo montage and collage. Surrealism has had a huge impact on Graphic Design showing a designer she/he does not require and necessarily have to follow grids and can use several images different or even the same image together to communicate or to even create something together (juxta-posed) to communicate to the public your message even using dream like techniques.
References:
Surrealism and How it is Used Today. 2015. Surrealism and How it is Used Today. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/modern-surrealism-and-history/. [Accessed 15 November 2015].
A Dictionary of Surrealism and the Graphic Image: Design Observer. 2015. A Dictionary of Surrealism and the Graphic Image: Design Observer. [ONLINE] Available at: http://designobserver.com/feature/a-dictionary-of-surrealism-and-the-graphic-image/37685/. [Accessed 15 November 2015].
How Surrealism Influenced Graphic Design – Pet Portraits by Catillest. 2015. How Surrealism Influenced Graphic Design – Pet Portraits by Catillest. [ONLINE] Available at: http://catillest.com/how-surrealism-influenced-graphic-design/. [Accessed 15 November 2015].
Eye Magazine | Feature | Dark tools of desire. 2015. Eye Magazine | Feature | Dark tools of desire. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/dark-tools-of-desire. [Accessed 15 November 2015]
The Complex Bonds Between Design and Surrealism. 2015. The Complex Bonds Between Design and Surrealism. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.printmag.com/article/the-complex-bonds-between-design-and-surrealism/#axzz143V6dr5t. [Accessed 15 November 2015].
Surrealism Movement, Artists and Major Works | The Art Story. 2015. Surrealism Movement, Artists and Major Works | The Art Story. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.theartstory.org/movement-surrealism.htm. [Accessed 15 November 2015]
Surrealism | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2015. Surrealism | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm. [Accessed 15 November 2015].
The Origins of Surrealism. 2015. The Origins of Surrealism. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/surrealism/Origins-of-Surrealism.html. [Accessed 15 November 2015]
Having a look at History of Graphic Design: Surrealism. 2015. Having a look at History of Graphic Design: Surrealism. [ONLINE] Available at:http://havingalookathistoryofgraphicdesign.blogspot.com.mt/2012/11/surrealism.html. [Accessed 15 November 2015].
History of Art 