Surrealism: exploring alternative reality

For some time, the spiritual nature of art and creative process seemed to be more a matter of personal beliefs and inclinations, not a generally accepted constant. Even though there was no more strict dedication to classical art school, material values, dedication to technique and typical motifs would be prevailing among most artists. It was a matter of time when the combination of two worlds - material and spiritual -will make a niche for itself. This niche was taken by Surrealism.

In the 1920th, somewhere between dreams a reality, the phenomenon of surreal emerged in french art. Having developed from Dadaism, that was destruction-oriented and started to fade away, the movement of 'over realism' adopted destruction as a means of creation. Founded by writer Andre Breton, who was also a psychiatrist, together with Louis Aragon and Philippe Soupault, the movement detached from Dada and turned into something more spiritual. Breton himself took up automatic writing methods and, probably using this method, wrote a Manifesto of Surrealism - 'pure psychic automatism' . Needless to say that the philosophy of movement was vastly influenced by Sigmund Freuds' works, particularly 'The interpretation of Dreams' 1899. The fundamental features of Surrealism were irrationality and illogicality, unconscious uncontrolled process (automatism) , denial of subjectivity. The main goal of creative process was to to free the 'ego' that was suppressed by the burden of life and logic. The approach quickly attracted many artists, including those like Man Ray and Duchamp.

The postulates of the movement got to ways of realization. The first group was relying more on automatism, whose works were pretty distant from reality, dominated by arbitrary forms leaning towards abstraction. It was represented by such artists as Mark Ernst and Joan Miro. Another surrealistic group , the surrealism as we know it, represented by Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte and Tanguy, existed somewhere in the middle between the dreams and reality. They mostly depicted recognizable objects in strange combinations, full of details and illusive compositions. 

Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee

Salvador Dali

1944

Dreams played an important role in Dali's work. Usually, after waking up he went straight to the canvas in order to copy the illusions he had, that is similar to the psychoanalysis method. As well as this painting is inspired by Freud and his method of a long dream controlled by the surrounding.  We can see multiple recognizable objects and creatures, that are realistic and illusion-modified at the same time. So, it is most likely that the artwork shows what is the reaction of a dreaming person on the fallen pomegranate. The center figures of the painting are tiger and a naked woman floating in her sleep. It might be an image of the actual power of our subconscious over conscious, as the figures of tigers are more important here than a pomegranate and a bee - two small bridges to the real life. On the background there is an elephant figure on bayonet legs - tribute to Bernini. The rifle is also a symbolic reference to psychoanalysis. 

The image creates a feeling of duality as to the sharp opposition of sleeping still Gala to the roaring moving tigers. This, together with perspective and overall composition, compliments to the dynamism of the artwork.

The Treachery of images

Rene Magritte

1929

Rene Magritte's style is remarkable for it's clarity and extreme (for Surrealism) closeness to reality. The depiction is very accurate and straightforward, yet it creates impression of covering some deeper meaning. The artist often added textual component to add meaning to the image. Similarly as on this painting, where the image would obviously make less sense without the 'commentary'. Such correlation of text and image makes Magrittes' art a more intellectual and even more logical part of Surrealism. He involves viewer into a game of semiotics and makes the image be not merely image, but an example of illusive nature of the surrounding world.

This image of a pipe could possible be used for advertising purposes, as it is clean and visually appealing. There is nothing else, but a pipe on a yellowish, calm background. The artist uses a lighting effect that covers smoothly the front part of he pipe. The text 'This is not a pipe' is written in a neat calligraphic manner, that resonates with the classic outlook of the object and adds to the commercializing'  mood.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism

https://artchive.ru/res/media/img/orig/work/4fc/259058@2x.jpg

http://totallyhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/the-treachery-of-images-this-is-not-a-pipe-1948.jpg

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-magritte-rene-artworks.htm#pnt_3