Surrealism

[Chris_Jones]

What's your take?

[JJ Smooth]

One of my favorite art movements, probably because its just so bizarre. Dali, Duchamp, Magritte, and De Kooning are some of my favorites.

This is not a pipe.

[Peter J Poole]

Pretty much has to be case by case for me.

There are some totally gorgeous examples, and there are some totally self-indulgent pisstakes, where you just know the artist is giving two fingers to the world...

Cheers.

[spectre615]

Well Mr. Realsmm is fine, but I don't know why he had to be knighted.


OH! SURrealism.

<sigh> My humor is really on the fritz.

[Peter J Poole]

Q: How many surrealists does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: A fish!

Cheers.

[Eoullis]

Love the surrealists....like a lot.

But, I sure hate it when someone says,..."That's so surreal"...yaaaackk!

[Rootfireember]

Alright. Surrealism is the child of Dada's panic attack. That is to say it was a more viable, slightly less violent version, with fewer incidents of artists killing themselves, or starting riots. Once the energy of Dada waned, and it was pretty obvious that the world was not, infact going to end even with its decadence, surrealism proved to be much more viable than its parent/sister group.

Untangling the relationships between surealism and dada is like working on a spiderweb, since many of those involved were part of both groups at different times in their careers, many exchanged letters with eachother, and influenced eachother. Dada was, at its core, about Questioning things. Surrealism was intended to provoke Thought.

As for Surrealism and Dada being considered art movements; I have been told that Duchamp was greatly saddened the first time he found Dada was written about as an art movement in a book; for with a blank acceptance of the works as art, the whole point of Dada had been missed; and the questioning it had sought to provoke .... was not as successful as they had hoped.

I haven't found much on the surrealist's reactions to being included in art history books, however.

I like Surrealism, but Dada's where my heart is.

[Peter J Poole]

So your heart belongs to Dada?

Cheers (Sorry... couldn't resist..OK, didn't try to resist...Sorry!)

[Rootfireember]

Dada's little girl! (Oh wouldn't freud have a field day with that! *snirk*). My Satron Paint is Tristan Tzara. I like his essays, I'm not too fond of his poetry, and some of his logo and designwork is stunning, and he looks like such a smirky, fun fellow. Like he enjoyed life.

I also think Duchamp cheated with his urinal, as he he was on the judging committee for the show it was first entered in.

I first got into Dada and it's kin movements when told to write a paper on the meaning of art, using references from past artists. I found Tzara, and everything got fun and crazy. I also greatly enjoyed Kandinsky's On the Spiritual in Art, and used to have a few quotes from it up on my studio wall in college.

Raoul Hausmann and Georg Grosz's caricature wars and not-always-friendly rivalry always struck me as interesting; while they got along at times, when they didn't, their arguments were fairly interesting; not because of technical skill, but because of how childish and human they struck me as; they weren't people off on a pedelstel. They were playful. They were 18-to-30-somethings stuck in a world that was getting pretty scary, pretty fast; and I think their 'art' --and moreso their essays-- offer a decent reflection of how they were feeling at the time, and trying to cope with things.

The break between Dada and Surrealism-- and the related arguments between the Berlin and Paris Dadas and predominantly Andre Brenton and the American group are also interesting; because not only is it a split in a movement, but a change in circles of friends and how a large group of people related to eachother.

It always struck me as amazing how the group kept up contact, with various members speaking dutch, german, french, swiss, american, and romanian, what with the lack of internet back then; and internet translators! Than again, many of the people involved spoke several languages.

[Rootfireember]