Surrealism is an artistic and philosophical/political movement which evolved in Paris, France in the years following World War I. Surrealism borrows from earlier schools of art, such as Cubism, Dadaism, and Expressionism. At its core, surrealist art focuses on juxtaposing images which don't naturally belong together. The ironies, associations, and unconscious images of the best surrealist works pack a potent emotional punch. After gestating in Paris, the movement quickly spread to North America and the rest of Europe. It was dealt a harsh blow by the Great Depression, which refocused world attention to the plights of the poor and away from the abstract agonies of metaphysics. According to some, when Andre Breton died, so did the surrealist movement. However, others contend that Surrealism lives on to this day, fashioned and re-fashioned by each new artistic movement. Painters like Salvador Dali, Yves Tanguy, and even Pablo Picasso crafted the surrealist "brand." One of the most famous surrealist works of art is Rene Magritte's painting, "The Betrayal of Images," which he composed in 1928. This piece clearly depicts a tobacco pipe. Underneath the pipe, written in French, are the words: "This Is Not A Pipe." The crystal clear irony of Magritte's work suggests something truly profound about popular culture and indeed about reason itself. By forcing the viewer to attend to the paradoxes inherent in the painting, Magritte encourages further dissociation and reversion to abstract and primitive ways of thinking. |
