Surrealism Movement: André Breton: Joan Miró

By Molly at clker.com

 The goal of the surrealism movement in art and writing was to harness the imaginative power locked away in the subconscious mind. It began in Paris. A few writers that besmirched rationalism and realism in literature and trusted the concepts of Sigmund Freud thought the conscious mind quashed the imagination. They wanted their imagination and art to be released from taboos.

It began as a literary movement. Some writers were doubtful that it applied to painting,  later on Breton accepted the possibilities of painters to use surrealistic techniques.

In 1924, they began a crusade to overturn the onerous decrees of their time. The main initiator was the poet, André Breton. He said it was a violent reaction opposed to the sterile thinking and results of rationalism. He wrote the Manifesto of Surrealism in which he explained the movements tenets. 

Manifestoes of Surrealism (Ann Arbor Paperbacks)

They were akin to the Romantics or Romanticism in their trust of the great power of the imagination, but they thought that ordinary life and city streets held epiphanies, whereas Romanticists relied on nature for inspiration.

They influenced the Abstract Expressionists whom were also fascinated by fable and unsophisticated thinking not persuaded by objective reasoning. The surrealist painter Joan Miró had a far-reaching impact on the Abstract Expressionists. The surrealist movement ended after World War II.

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