surrealism began
in 1924
in paris
in this cafe
with this poet
andre breton
note the hair
surrealists have luxuriant here
breton published a manifest
is inspired by this man
sigmund freud note the beard
psychoanalysts have luxuriant beards
freud wrote a book
called the interpretation of dreams
he believed that there was a deep layer
of the human mind where memory and our
most basic instincts were stored he
called it the unconscious mind since
most of the time we were not aware of it
breton believed art and literature could
represent the unconscious mind
these are some of the artists who agreed
with him
salvador dali max ernst merritt open eye
juan miro dorothea tanning eve tangy lee
miller
reigning mcgreet
claude cahoon
a lot of surrealist artists about sex
this is because freud believed that the
primary motivation for all things in
life was sex
he changed his mind later
breton believed the desire was central
to the surrealist vision of love poetry
and liberty
it was the key to understanding human
beings
here is a piece of surrealist sculpture
by merit oppenheim
surrealists like to put objects that
were not normally associated with one
another together
to make something that was playful and
disturbing at the same time in order to
stimulate the unconscious mind
this is a sculpture by salvador dali
called lobster telephone
it's about food and sex
there were essentially two types of
surrealist painting
one's about
dreams full of lots of freudian symbols
like apples
hats and birds
and ones
called automatism
inspired by freud's idea of free
association
which was designed to reveal the
unconscious mind
here is an example of automatism by jean
miro
it's mainly blue
because miro like to represent dreams
using the color blue
the shapes are arbitrary
as if drawn from the artist's
unconscious mind
miro's conscious mind
has then turned the shapes into objects
like a shooting star
a breast
and a horse
there were also surrealist films the
most famous was enchan andalu made by
louis benue and salvador dali is best
known for this scene
some people didn't like surrealism
freud didn't like it
he'd spent his life deciphering the
codes of the unconscious mind so that
people could understand themselves
better
he thought artists should paint the
conscious mind
waste their time painting freudian
symbols like apples hats and birds
but surrealism continues to have a huge
influence on culture and society today
as breton said
surrealism is not just an art movement
it's a way of thinking
a way of life
a way
of transforming existence
you