L.H.O.O.Q.,
(Marcel Duchamp, 1919). Phonetically: "elle a chaud au cul"
or "She's got a hot ass."L.H.O.O.Q.,
(Marcel Duchamp, 1919). Phonetically: "elle a chaud au cul"
or "She's got a hot ass."
The Dada Manifesto (1918):
The signatories of this manifesto have, under the battle cry
D A D A ! ! !
gathered together
to put forward a new art. What, then, is Dadaism? The word "Dada" signifies
the most primitive relation to the reality of the environment. . . . Life appears
as a simultaneous muddle of noises, colours and spiritual rhythms, which is
taken unmodified, with all the sensational screams and fevers of its reckless
everyday psyche and with all its brutal reality. . . . Dada is the international
expression of our times, the great rebellion of artistic movements, the artistic
reflex of all these offensives, peace congresses, riots in the vegetable market.
. . . (Hughes, 71)
"Exquisite Corpse: Game of folded paper played by several people,
who compose a sentence or drawing without anyone seeing the preceding collaboration
or collaborations. The now classic example, which gave the game its name, was
drawn from the first sentence obtained this way: The-exquisite-corpse-will-drink-new-wine."
Drawing by
Yves Tanguy, Man Ray, Max Morise, Joan Miró, c. 1926.
More exquisite corpses. Drawings by Victor Brauner, André
Breton, Jacques Hérold and Yves Tanguy, 1935.
First Surrealist Manifesto (1924)
By André Breton. Full text is over here. There's also a PDF-format version that'll be easier to print.
SURREALISM, noun, masc., Pure psychic automatism by which it is intended to express, either verbally or in writing, the true function of thought. Thought dictated in the absence of all control exerted by reason, and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupations.
ENCYCL. Philos. Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of association heretofore neglected, in the omnipotence of the dream, and in the disinterested play of thought. It leads to the permanent destruction of all other psychic mechanisms and to its substitution for them in the solution of the principal problems of life. (Waldberg, 72)
René Clair's Entr'Acte features many Dada and surrealist artists.
Photographer Man Ray (right) & artist Marcel Duchamp play chess.
 Man Ray, 1931 |
 Marcel Duchamp, 1958 |
Duchamp was known for dada, "readymade" (e.g., Fountain [1917]) and cubist work (e.g., Nude Descending a Staircase).
Source: http://www.beatmuseum.org/duchamp/fountain.html
Dada playwright Francis Picabia (right) and composer Erik Satie ignite a cannon.
 Francis Picabia, 1922 |
Léger & Murphy's Ballet Mécanique
 One flew A collar of pearls Of 5 million |
 Charlie Chaplin collage |
Luis Buñuel & Salvador Dalí's Un Chien Andalou
View hundreds of Dalí's works online.
Dalí's
paintings are featured in The Shock of the New (pp. 239-240).
(Select an image below for a larger view.)
Un Chien Andalou (1929)
Other Surrealist Work
René Magritte
 The Treason of Images (1928-9) "Ceci n'est pas une pipe." = "This is not a pipe." |
Influences on Surrealism
| Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) | |
 From "The Anatomy of the Mental Personality" lecture, published in New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-analysis (1933), available online. |
|
| Romanticism | Giorgio de Chirico |
 |
 |
| Arnold Böcklin, The Isle of the Dead (1880) | Melancholy and Mystery of a Street (1914) |
| Primitive, folk art | |
 |
 |
| Henri Rouseau, Le Rêve ("the dream," 1910) | "Facteur" Cheval, Ideal Palace (1879+) |
| Ava Maria Grotto (Cullman, AL) | |
 |
André Breton, "Le Cadavre Exquis" and "First Surrealist Manifesto," in Patrick Waldberg, ed., Surrealism (NY: McGraw-Hill, 1971), pp. 93-94.
Robert Hughes, The Shock of the New (NY: Knopf, 1981).
Salvador Dalí Art Gallery, dali-gallery.com .
Last revised:
October 19, 2006 8:28 AM
Comments: jbutler [at] ua.edu
