Surrealism Essay

Surrealism is a 20th-century literary and artistic movement that attempts to express the workings of the subconscious and is characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtaposition of subject matter. In defining Surrealism, as the founder of Surrealism Breton had described it as "a certain psychic automatism that comes very close to dream, a state that is very hard to circumscribe today." The whole chapter 4 is mostly talking about the history of how Surrealism got started and how the concept was formed up. Since Surrealism was transformed from Dada art in Paris, they had a lot of characteristics in common. As both Dada art and Surrealism expressed, both of their ideas are everything is possible. The Parade in 1917 was the early performance that formed up Surrealism. Enik Satie, Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteou, and Leonide Massine were collaborated for this performance. This indeed set stage for future surrealist work. Unlike Dadaist’s another concept that “everything out of nothing and nothing out of everything”, Surrealism is more like a dream liked art style. Surrealism intended to bring the audiences back to the ways that they see things as child, as someone never seen this world before but in an abstract way. Like what Guillaume Apollinaire wrote: “When man wanted to imitate walking, he created the wheel, which does not resemble the leg. In the same way, he created Surrealism”, Surrealism brings allusions of dream beyond the reality and our human mind. Surrealism is the principles, ideals, or practice of producing fantastic or incongruous imagery or effects in art by means of unnatural or irrational juxtapositions and combinations. For example, the performance created by Jean Cocteou, which crowds of people represented by just a singular actor clearly codifies surrealist technique.