7 famous SURREALIST painters and their WORKS

The surreal artists They showed on their canvases the images that their unconscious generated, everything that was hidden in their mind and that only surfaced in dreams or in psychoanalysis. Thus, this avant-garde artistic and literary movement emerged at the beginning of the 20th century, focused on the creation of dreamlike, abstract and symbolic images in which deep emotional expression was reflected allowing to show traumas, repressed impulses, among others.

Surrealism became a turning point within the art world by moving away from aesthetics traditional and go from capturing reality to showing the personality, emotions and feelings of the artist. In this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we show you who are the famous surrealist painters and their works most prominent.

Index

1. Introduction to Famous Surreal Painters
2. Max Ernst (1891 - 1976)
3. Joan Miró (1893-1983)
4. Leonora Carrington (1917-2011)
5. Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978)
6. Yves Tanguy (1900-1955)
7. Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
8. René Magritte (1898-1967)

The surrealism It had a notable influence from Dadaism, an avant-garde movement, having as its founder one of its key members, André Breton. An artist who also applied to art and literature the automatic method of free association devised by Sigmund Freud.

A psychoanalytic technique that consists of the psychoanalyzed person expressing all his ideas, images, emotions, thoughts, memories, traumas, etc. Breton was also the author of the Surrealist Manifesto (1924), followed by artists such as Max ernst, Salvador Dali, René Magritte, Leonora Carrington, among others.

Max Ernst is a artist, sculptor and poet German who was a key figure within the Dada and Surrealist movement. Ernst stands out for his taste for experimentation with illusion and the irrational, being a prominent member of the Automatism and techniques such as frottage and the decal. His work is characterized by representing anthropomorphic and fantastic figures in typical Renaissance settings and landscapes.

Celebes (1921) by Max Ernst

In this work a kind of mechanical monster, looking like an elephant, and that is located in an evicted landscape in which flying fish, oil cans and a female figure also appear. A typical composition of surreal automatism and the technique of free association.

Other interesting works by Max Ernst are Oedipus Rex (1922), Saint Cecilia (Invisible Piano) (1923), Blind swimmer: effects of a contact (1934), The angel of the home (1937) or The eye of silence (1944).

Joan Miró is another of the famous and essential surrealist painters. He was a Spanish artist who stood out for being one of the most prominent members of the 20th century avant-gardes. A abstract artist whose work was characterized by the use of bright colors and geometric shapes. The simple combination of these elements helped him create abstract pieces wrapped in evocative and surreal environments.

Upon settling in Paris, he went to Pablo Gargallo's studio and came into contact with artists from the Dada movement, such as André Bretón, Francis Picabia, Tristán Tzara, Man Ray, and Max Ernst.

Between the most outstanding surrealist works CHarlequin's Carnival (1924), series of three paintings Dutch Interior (1928), Snail, Woman, Flower and Star (1934), Still Life of the Old Shoe (1937), A Star Caresses the Womb of a Black Woman (1938) and Constellations (1940-1941), among many.

Leonora is a British painter, sculptor and writer, Mexican nationalized, she is considered as the last surreal. Leonora was a bold artist that she managed to overcome many obstacles to become an artist in a deeply misogynistic art world. Leonora herself had a truly traumatic life experience, living World War II, an internment in a psychiatric hospital and her flight to Mexico, where she would continue her pictorial career.

Among the most outstanding works of Leonora Carrington: The inn of the horse of dawn (self-portrait, 1937-1938), Art 110 (1942) The house opposite (1945) The Giganta (1946) The Cradle (1949) Three Women and Crows on the Table (1951) and The Magical World of the Mayans (1984).

Self portrait

In this self portrait, Leonora tries to explore her femininity creating a kind of mimesis between her and a hyena. A work that she painted when she was only 20 years old and in it she also shows us an image of a horse that is seen fleeing through a window, a kind of alter ego. The symbolism and the dreamlike are constant in her work.

Chirico is another of the most interesting famous surrealist painters. An Italian painter who is considered one of the precursors of surrealism, being one of its great figures. Thus, works such as The Love Song (1914) is considered a precursor of surrealism, officially founded in 1924.

Thus, Chirico was the founder of the metaphysical scuola, a movement that tried to capture the irrational with everyday objects. Classical art, Freud, expressionism, Nietzsche or Schopenhauer are some of the constants in her work.

Among her works: The love song (1914), The prophet (1915), Hector and Andromeda (1917), The archaeologists, 1927 or Plaza de Italia with a fountain, (1968).

Yves Tanguy was welcomed by Breton within the surrealist circle, being a self-taught painter that he got a style of his own in which imagination prevailed, developing a work in which lonely and abstract landscapes abound.

Dreamlike and unique environments like the ones he captured in works such as Extinction of useless lights (1927), The palace with window rocks (1942), Still and always (1942), The speed of sleep (1945) or Imaginary numbers (1954).

Another of the most famous surrealist painters is Salvador Dali, one of the most iconic and prominent members of him. A Spanish artist very influenced by the freudian psychoanalysis, using art to delve into his unconscious through symbolism.

Dalí also used media such as sculpture, engraving and writing, his main theoretical contribution to surrealism being the so-called paranoid-critical method considering that paranoia was the ability transmitted to the brain to find links between objects that apparently have no relationship. The artist used this method to create works of art, capturing all those active processes of the mind on the canvas. Thus, images of objects that do not actually exist as double or multiple images are generated.

André Bretón considered this Dalí technique as a fundamental instrument for artistic creation and applicable to poetry, fashion, sculpture, cinema or art history, etc.

Between the Dalí's most outstanding works they find each other: The Great Masturbator (1929), The Invisible Man (1929-1933), The Persistence of Memory (1931,) Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (1936), The Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937) Dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate a second before waking up (1944) and The Temptation of Saint Antonio (1946), among other.

René Magritte was a Belgian artist is one of the most prolific artists of the surrealist movement, being one of its most active and long-lasting members. An artist who was characterized by his wit, irony and his taste for illusionism.

Thus, far from automatism, Magritte preferred the thoughtful and thorough painting, combining elements in an unusual way and creating authentic icons such as tobacco pipes or bowlers.

Between his more important works they find each other: This is not a pipe (1928), Lovers (1928), Past Tense (1939), The Empire of Light (1953-1954) or The Son of Man (1964).

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• Martin, Tim (2004) Surrealists, Parragon
• Bretón, André and Eluard, Paul, (2015) Abbreviated Dictionary of Surrealism, Siruela