André Masson and the Surrealist Self

André Masson and the Surrealist Self
Author: Clark V. Poling
Publisher:
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2008
Genre: Art
ISBN:

This richly documented book examines the attempts of the French Surrealist artist Andr� Masson (1896-1987) to define "self” in his art in the period between the early 1920s and 1940, the most fruitful period of classic Surrealism, culminating in the emergence of existentialism. Through a close reading of Masson’s paintings, drawings, and writings, Clark Poling explores the ways in which the artist figured the self--as fragmented, dissolved, merged with other selves and with the natural environment, and, ultimately, reconstituted and consolidated. Masson’s work, Poling argues, reveals his involvement with modern conceptions of the self that he absorbed from Nietzsche and the Surrealist writers, as well as from other sources in philosophy, psychology, psychoanalysis and ethnography. He traces Masson’s articulation of these ideas in paintings and graphic works, using his correspondence from the Surrealist period and his many subsequent writings as supporting evidence.

Surrealism and Painting

Surrealism and Painting
Author: André Breton
Publisher:
Total Pages: 454
Release: 2002
Genre: Painters
ISBN:

Long unavailable in English, Surrealism and Painting remains one of the masterworks of twentieth-century art criticism."--BOOK JACKET.

Surrealism USA

Surrealism USA
Author: Isabelle Dervaux
Publisher: National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2005
Genre: Art
ISBN:

While Surrealism was becoming out of fashion in Europe in the 1930s, it enjoyed a growing popularity on the other side of the Atlantic. This text traces the history of this movement in the United States from about 1930 to 1950 by examining its manifestations throughout the country.

The Screen in Surrealist Art and Thought

The Screen in Surrealist Art and Thought
Author: Haim Finkelstein
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2017-07-05
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1351540610

An interrogation of the notion of space in Surrealist theory and philosophy, this study analyzes the manifestations of space in the paintings and writings done in the framework of the Surrealist Movement. Haim Finkelstein introduces the 'screen' as an important spatial paradigm that clarifies and extends the understanding of Surrealism as it unfolds in the 1920s, exploring the screen and layered depth as fundamental structuring principles associated with the representation of the mental space and of the internal processes that eventually came to be linked with the Surrealist concept of psychic automatism. Extending the discussion of the concepts at stake for Surrealist visual art into the context of film, literature and criticism, this study sheds new light on the way 'film thinking' permeates Surrealist thought and aesthetics. In early chapters, Finkelstein looks at the concept of the screen as emblematic of a strand of spatial apprehension that informs the work of young writers in the 1920s, such as Robert Desnos and Louis Aragon. He goes on to explore the way the spatial character of the serial films of Louis Feuillade intimated to the Surrealists a related mode of vision, associated with perception of the mystery and the Marvelous lurking behind the surfaces of quotidian reality. The dialectics informing Surrealist thought with regard to the surfaces of the real (with walls, doors and windows as controlling images), are shown to be at the basis of Andr?reton's notion of the picture as a window. Contrary to the traditional sense of this metaphor, Breton's 'window' is informed by the screen paradigm, with its surface serving as a locus of a dialectics of transparency and opacity, permeability and reflectivity. The main aesthetic and conceptual issues that come up in the consideration of Breton's window metaphor lay the groundwork for an analysis of the work of Giorgio de Chirico, Ren?agritte, Max Ernst, Andr?asson, and Joan Mir?he concluding chapter consi

The Screen in Surrealist Art and Thought

The Screen in Surrealist Art and Thought
Author: Haim Finkelstein
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 551
Release: 2017-07-05
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1351540602

An interrogation of the notion of space in Surrealist theory and philosophy, this study analyzes the manifestations of space in the paintings and writings done in the framework of the Surrealist Movement. Haim Finkelstein introduces the 'screen' as an important spatial paradigm that clarifies and extends the understanding of Surrealism as it unfolds in the 1920s, exploring the screen and layered depth as fundamental structuring principles associated with the representation of the mental space and of the internal processes that eventually came to be linked with the Surrealist concept of psychic automatism. Extending the discussion of the concepts at stake for Surrealist visual art into the context of film, literature and criticism, this study sheds new light on the way 'film thinking' permeates Surrealist thought and aesthetics. In early chapters, Finkelstein looks at the concept of the screen as emblematic of a strand of spatial apprehension that informs the work of young writers in the 1920s, such as Robert Desnos and Louis Aragon. He goes on to explore the way the spatial character of the serial films of Louis Feuillade intimated to the Surrealists a related mode of vision, associated with perception of the mystery and the Marvelous lurking behind the surfaces of quotidian reality. The dialectics informing Surrealist thought with regard to the surfaces of the real (with walls, doors and windows as controlling images), are shown to be at the basis of Andr?reton's notion of the picture as a window. Contrary to the traditional sense of this metaphor, Breton's 'window' is informed by the screen paradigm, with its surface serving as a locus of a dialectics of transparency and opacity, permeability and reflectivity. The main aesthetic and conceptual issues that come up in the consideration of Breton's window metaphor lay the groundwork for an analysis of the work of Giorgio de Chirico, Ren?agritte, Max Ernst, Andr?asson, and Joan Mir?he concluding chapter consi

France and the Americas [3 volumes]

France and the Americas [3 volumes]
Author: Bill Marshall
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 1334
Release: 2005-05-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1851094164

A unique, multidisciplinary encyclopedia covering the impacts that French and American politics, foreign policy, and culture have had on shaping each country's identity. From 17th-century fur traders in Canada to 21st-century peacekeepers in Haiti, from France's decisive role in the Revolutionary War leading to the creation of the United States to recent disagreements over Iraq, France and the Americas charts the history of the inextricable links between France and the nations of the Americas. This comprehensive survey features an incisive introduction and a chronology of key events, spanning 400 years of France's transatlantic relations. Students of many disciplines, as well as the lay reader, will appreciate this comprehensive survey, which traces the common themes of both French policy, language, and influence throughout the Americas and the wide-ranging transatlantic influences on contemporary France.

The Sources of Surrealism

The Sources of Surrealism
Author: Neil Matheson
Publisher: Lund Humphries Publishers Limited
Total Pages: 880
Release: 2006
Genre: Art
ISBN:

Surrealism is a particularly complex international movement, embracing both the literary and the visual arts, while lacking any single visual or literary style, and this, together with its long existence, has served to generate a very substantial body of writings - poetry, novels, essays, theoretical writings, manifestoes and other documents - which might be considered as fundamental to any proper understanding of the movement. The Sources of Surrealism is a comprehensive sourcebook documenting the origins and development of Surrealism internationally through a collection of 234 original documents. The texts have been selected from across the whole range of Surrealist writing, as well as including influential predecessors like Rimbaud and Lautreamont, and contemporaries such as Raymond Roussell and Alfred Jarry. Texts are published in English throughout, with new translations provided for previously untranslated material. The book addresses for the first time the neglected area of the relationship between Surrealism and popular culture, including Surrealism's engagement with cinema, and attempts to address the increased critical interest in what in the past were more neglected figures, such as Michel Leiris and Georges Bataille. Particular emphasis is given to the earlier documents and influences upon the Surrealist movement, as well as to the period of its internationalism during the 1930s, and the texts cover Surrealism in Britain and Belgium as well as France. This fascinating collection presents what was most vital about this complex and often contradictory movement, and serves as an essential reference book for scholars, as well as stimulating reading for all those with a general interest in the subject.

Drawing Surrealism

Drawing Surrealism
Author: Leslie Jones
Publisher: Prestel Pub
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2012
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9783791352398

Drawing, often considered a minor art form, was central to surrealism from its very beginnings. Automatic drawing, exquisite corpses, and frottage are just a few of the techniques invented by surrealists to tap into the subconscious realm. Drawing Surrealism recognizes the medium as a fundamental form of surrealist expression and explores its impact on other media. Works of collage, photography, and even painting are presented in the context of drawing as a metaphor for innovation and experimentation. This volume, in addition to brilliant reproductions of drawings and other works by approximately one hundred artists, includes a substantial historical essay and illustrated chronology by the exhibition's curator, Leslie Jones, as well as informative essays by leading scholars Isabelle Dervaux and Susan Laxton. It also encompasses the contributions of a wide array of artists on a global scale - from the great figures in surrealist history to lesser-known surrealists from Japan, central Europe, and the Americas, where the movement had profound and lasting effects on the arts. Drawing Surrealism, which will become a definitive resource on the subject, offers a deep understanding of the techniques and concerns that made surrealism such an intimate perceptual revolution.

Surrealism

Surrealism
Author: Nathalia Brodskaïa
Publisher: Parkstone International
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2012-05-08
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1780428731

Surrealists appeared in the aftermath of World War I with a bang: revolution of thought, creativity, and the wish to break away from the past and all that was left in ruins.This refusal to integrate into the bourgeois society was also a leitmotiv of Dada artists, and André Breton asserted that Dada does not produce perspective. Surrealism emerged amidst such feeling. Surrealists and Dada artists often changed from one movement to another.They were united by their superior intellectualism and the common goal to break free from the norm. Describing the Surrealists with their aversive resistance to the system, the author brings a new approach which strives to be relative and truthful. Provocation and cultural revolution: aren’t Surrealists after all just a direct product of creative individualism in this unsettled period?