“Surrealism” essay: main points to uncover

Surrealism is an artistic movement that reflects the main tendencies of art philosophy of the 20th century. It is valuable mostly for literature works and pictorial art, which are based on the concepts of psychoanalysis, to a large extent. It should be mentioned that surrealism has gained its popularity due to its spreading through fashion, photography and advertising, which allowed addressing enormous auditory, which was not originally interested in art. Here are some more aspects, which you can reveal in your essay about surrealistic movement.

How it began.

• Surrealism was manifested in Andre Breton’s work, where he states that surrealism is characteristic for its ability to express actual thoughts functioning through verbal and other symbols. Additionally, he marks out the importance of unconscious mind and its key role in the surrealistic art in general. Thus, according to Andre Breton’s statement, every artist must find means to access the information from his or her subconscious layer.

The influences.

• Surrealism was greatly influenced by psychoanalysis, developed by Sigmund Freud. Especially, they paid attention to the power of imagination and sub-consciousness. It is claimed that our unconscious desired are repressed by our conscious mind through taboos set by society; and the genuine task of the artist is to get rid of the conscious pressure and reveal the desires and images from sub-consciousness in artistic works.
• Additionally, surrealism uses psychoanalytic concept “archetype”, which means images and notions that are derived from our unconsciousness and are formed in it under archaic impacts.
• Another scholar who had a significant influence was Karl Marx. He stated that spirit opens controversial aspects in daily life and urges on revolution.
• It should be noted that surrealism continues the tradition of Romanticism with an essential change that its exposes can originate in usual conditions.

Basic concepts.

• The key concepts used by surrealists are myth, sub-consciousness, and primitivism.
• Also, surrealism takes antiauthoritarianism path, which is caused by historical factors. Additionally, it has very strong anti-rationalism pathos that refutes conscious arrangements in art but supports unconscious mind, which is free from taboos.
• Surrealism requires the artist to unlock imagination’s power.
• Initially, surrealism originated as literary movement but later it became extremely popular in painting under influence of abstract expressionists.
• The methods of expression, which surrealists mostly use, are bizarre and symbolism. It allows to state that surrealism synthesizes symbolism, avant-garde, romanticism and psychoanalysis.
• One of the most popular techniques of symbolists is collage: it shows the bizarre images and lets the artist connect not connectable things.
• The most well-known artists are Salvador Dali and Man Ray. They popularized surrealism by means of fashion, photography and advertising.

Which type of paper to select.

• Select a type of essay, which you are going to complete on your topic. You may write a definition paper and provide your personal explanation to the term of surrealism.
• It is also possible to complete a biography paper selecting one of the famous surrealist and explain his vision of this style.
• You may also choose to complete a compare and contrast paper. In this context, you can compare surrealism with any other movement, contrast two surrealistic painters, writers, or works.