Andre Breton 1896 1966 French poet and critic

Andre Breton 1896 -1966 French poet and critic, a leader of the surrealistic movement. Breton’s study of the works of Sigmund Freud and his experiments with automatic writing influenced his formulation of surrealist theory. He wrote three surrealist manifestos (1924, 1930, 1942). Andre Breton, Photo by Man Ray

Giorgio de Chirico

Giorgio de Chirico created a unique style of painting that was marked by light and shadow, dull color, eerie juxtaposition of typically Italian architecture, classical figures, and deserted plazas. Metaphysical Painting, as de Chirico called it, was seized on by the Surrealists in the 1920’s.

Giorgio de Chirico, The Uncertainty of the Poet 1913

Yves Tanguy, Indefinite Divisibility

Salvador Dali in his studio 1930

Salvador Dali, The First Days of Spring 1929

Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory 1931

Salvador Dali, Person Throwing a Stone, 1928

Salvador Dali, Eggs on a Plate Without a Plate 1932

Salvador Dali, Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire, 1940

Dali’s relationship with the other surrealists became troubled and they attempted to expel him from the surrealist group at a “trial” held in Paris in 1934. Dali sums up his relationship with the group as follows: “The difference between me and the surrealists is that I am Surrealism. ”

“My painting is visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question “What does that mean”? It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable. ” Rene Magritte

The Betrayal of Images, 1929 Rene Magritte

In his 1938 lecture Magritte cited this image as an example of his method of finding ‘solutions’ to ‘problems’. Here the problem is the train, and his solution is to show it emerging from a dining-room fireplace ‘in place of the usual stovepipe. La duree poignardee Time transfixed

Rene Magritte, Son of Man 1964

La Chambre d’ecoute (The Listening Room) Rene Magritte 1952

Les valeurs personnelies (Personal Values) Rene Magritte 1952

They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my reality. Frida Kahlo

Self-portrait with Necklace of Thorns Frida Kahlo 1940 More than half of Kahlo’s pictures are self-portraits. In all her paintings she seeks to express her current mood. “I paint myself because I am often alone and because I am the subject I know the best. ”

Self Portrait With Cropped Hair What The Water Has Given Me Frida Kahlo

Joan Miro, Carnival of Harlequin

Still Life with Old Shoe, 1937 Joan Miro

Max Ernst 1891 -1976 German painter, sculptor and collagist. He studied philosophy and psychiatry at Bonn, 1909 -1914, and was self-taught as a painter. In 1914 he met Jean Arp, with whom he founded the Dada movement in Cologne. His earlier work was influenced by de Chirico’s dreamlike scenes. The Punching Ball, 1920

Max Ernst L’ elephant Celebes 1921 Ernst became interested in visually manifesting the world of dreams and the unconscious. He drew upon the memories of his childhood traumas as subject matter and tried to resolve them through the psychoanalytic methods of Freud.

The Hat Makes The Man Max Ernst, 1920

Homage to the Romantic Ballet, 1942 Joseph Cornell

Joseph Cornell American 1903 -1972 Hotel Bellogio, 1949 Cornell was largely selftaught, he began painting and making collages and assemblages in the 1930 s, inspired by Ernst’s collages. In their visual ambiguity and elusive titles his boxes have affinities with works by the Surrealists. All of them are small, some with movable parts inviting viewer participation. Cornell also made Surrealist films.

Joseph Cornell Object (Roses des Vents) 1942

Man Ray 1890 -1976 Solorized Self Portrait, 1931 American painter, photographer, sculptor, objectmaker, and collagist, filmmaker and printmaker, poet, essayist, and philosopher and the most enigmatic of the Dada-Surrealists who transformed the Paris art world during the 1920’s

Man Ray produced his first rayogramme in 1921. They are images obtained from photosensitive material without the use of lenses or cameras or the mediation of a negative, created by placing objects directly in contact with photographic emulsion. A chance discovery. Man Ray, Rayogram 1945

Man Ray, Glass Tears

Object of Destruction, 1923 Gift, 1921

Merit Oppenheim, Object 1928