More real than the real world behind the real-the world of intuition, dreams, and the

unconscious realm explored by the psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud. (Meggs p.243). It is said
to be the inspiration which led the poet Andr Breton to surrealism. As surrealism is about
interpreting the unconscious. Unconscious is a state of mind which we are usually not aware
of, an undirected thoughts and dreams. Surreal does not necessarily means unreal rather is it
incongruously intricate. It is confusing most of the time yet make sense at the same time. Its
like the grey area of black and white, the merger of real and unreal.
The unconscious is the true psychical reality Sigmund Freud (2012, p. 92).
This is what makes this particular art movement interesting because what makes it different
is the fact that it is highly connected to the psychology world. The unconscious is the state
where were not awake nor aware of our surroundings, sort of like when were sleeping, yet
not necessarily limited to that, it can be also be when were awake, day dreaming, we sort of
unaware of the world as we are inside our dreams. This particular poet named Andr Breton
(1896-1966) whos not only a trained psychiatrist, but also known to be the founding father
of surrealism was interested in Freuds theories of the unconscious realm that led him and his
friends to started the automatic writing which is a way of writing without being effected by
reason nor control to get a more realistic feeling out of it.
However, before we got deeper about surrealism, its good if we learn a little bit about what
inspires surrealism in the first place to help us get a better understanding at the movement
itself. Which means, it is time to talk about.
Dada
Dada was an art movement prior to surrealism that wasnt actually intended to be a part of
the art movement. As dada was actually a protest against the First World War which was
happening at the time. Dada came to the surface of the earth around 1916 in Zurich though
it got around other European cities fairly quickly. Dada was all about protests, nonsense,
negativity, and most of all anti-art. Dadaist mostly recreate art only to mock them, though
1

theyre not necessarily attacking the art itself, it was rather a rebellion against the world war,
the decay of European society, the blind faith in technological progress and the inadequacy
of religion. All traditions to be rejected. (Meggs 1998, p.239) Yet that did not stop some of
Dadaist to create meaningful artwork that influenced graphic design nonetheless.
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) was one of dadas most prominent artist. His reproduction of
Mona Lisa was enigmatic. Admired by a group of young Parisian poets which was effectively
led by Andr Breton and includes Louis Aragon, Thodore Fraenkel, Paul Eluard, and
Philippe Soupault grouped around the journal Littrature. (Hopkins 2004, p.14). Becoming
a Dadaist, Breton was inspired by a couple of figures. The most important one of all is the
French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who was known to be Bretons friend and role model
also the first one who used the surraliste word when describing his own play Les Mamelles
de Tirsias. Dada wasnt standing for very long though, after the world war was over, Dada
had lost its virtue. It became absurd, overly anarchy and started to sink in its own negativity
in 1919, then considered demised by the end of 1922.
Now back to surrealism
Most of my research indicates that in 1924 when Breton released his first Surrealist Manifesto
is the official year of the starting point for surrealism. But Aspley (2010, p. xviii) made a
good point as to in 1919 can also be the birth of surrealism because it was the time when the
automatic writing was personally discovered by Breton. However Aspley put the year 1919
on the before surrealism period in his chronology chapter in the book. (Aspley, 2010).
In 1924, Surrealism made its mark in art history and was officially announced by its known
founder Andr Breton (1896-1966) with the publication of his Manifesto du Surrealisme
which was his first surrealist manisfesto. As described above, the word surrealism itself
was first coined in 1917 by Bretons role model Apollinaire, though according to Hopkins
(2004, p.17) Breton gave a greater precision for the word in his manifesto and was said to
be based on the believe in the superior reality of certain previously neglected associations,
2

in the omnipotence of dreams in the disinterested play of thought. The work of Sigmund
Freud was profoundly influential for Surrealists, particularly his book, The Interpretation of
Dreams (1899). Freud legitimized the importance of dreams and the unconscious as valid
revelations of human emotion and desires; his exposure of the complex and repressed inner
worlds of sexuality, desire, and violence provided a theoretical basis for much of Surrealism.
(The Art Story Contibutors, 2016). There was mostly poetries and hardly any visual art at this
point, the manifesto was essentially a poets charter and priority was accorded to psychic
automatismby means of the written word, or in any other manner.
With just French poets and writers such as Alfred Jarry, Arthur Rimbaud, Isidore Ducasse
(the Comte de Lautramont), Raymond Roussel, surrealism began as a literary movement.
It didnt attract many outsiders though because it was only around literature mostly. Then
visual artists, particularly painters started increasing in the group, even though at first the
poets arent actually welcoming visual artists because they questioning the fact that the
process of painting, drawing and sculpting doesnt seem to be automatic enough and it
was said to be at odds with spontaneity of uninhibited expression. But the poets werent
exactly against visual artist, they were actually respect artists such as Giorgio de Chirico
(1888-1978), Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Francis Picabia (1879-1953), and Marcel Duchamp
(1887-1968) for their analytic, provocative, and erotic qualities. (Voorhies, 2004). Then
theres dream painting method which was started by Max Ernst who was one of the first
visual artist to be a part of the surrealism movement recreating works of the Italian painter
Giorgio de Chirico. With the idea of surrealism was without the control of reason, surrealist
artists got a small problem because having dream as the main subject still need conscious
necessarily to process it into paintings or artworks. Then some artists like Joan Miro and
Andre Masson started producing artwork using automatism method just like the poets does.
Not long after that, film started to be a part of the surrealism movement which also brings
out more talented artist to the group like Salvador Dali. And Picasso, even though Picasso
wasnt necessarily become a part of the group, he gave the permission for some of his pieces
to be reproduced by surrealist artists.
3

But more heads means more opinions and different principles. In Bretons second manifesto,
he denounced some names which he believed wasnt live up to the groups principles and
ideology. Some names that was said to be failing the groups protocols includes Andre
Masson, Antonin Artaud, Michel Leiris, Roger Vitrac, and some more. So basically theres
2 surrealist group with different ideology. The second groups artwork was appear offenssive
according to Breton. As Breton was more about combining 2 incompitable images as one.
Georges Bataille is the known leading role of the second group whose been seperating
themselves from the first group since before Breton denounced them. In 1930 they even
published A Corpse in a form of a pamphlet, Bretons picture as a martyred Christ. It was a
direct attack on Breton after he denounced them.
Not just to denounce some names, Bretons second manifesto also revealed that the
philosophical believe on surrealism take a little turning point. Before, the movement was
all about whats inside the mind, the uncounscious, as of now, it is about the interaction
between the councious and the uncounscious. The combination between reality and dreams.
An example of this method is this philosophical novel my cousin sent me last year, the
book titled Sophies World its about a teenage girl getting philosphy lessons by a stranger
through mail. Throughout the lesson, strange things started to happen to her, not a horror
kind of strange though, rather stuff from her dreams started to actually appear in her room,
a mail for someone else being sent for her. The srangest one though is near the end of the
book and me having to spoil it to get the idea across, thus aparently Sophie is actually just
a book character, meaning that the book is telling us that Sophie is just a charachter in the
book that a father wants to give to his daughter for her birthday, also near the end Sophie
and her philosophy teacher got out of the book to see the real world out of the book.
(Gaarder 1994) And if you havent read it, you should. On that note, mainly the book was
telling us to question everything, to explore, not to limit ourselves. Limitation is there only
when we put it there. And surrealism is about exploring the thoughts we usually think we
are limited from being able to do so.
4

Another book that is interesting is actually from Sir Ardi, its the material for final
assignment for his class this term, its called The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. The
story is about Gregor Samsa who suddnely wakes up in the morning as a monstrous
verminous bug literally he phisically turned into a bug, How more surreal can it be?
Just in the first page of the first paragraph, thats what it revealed and the whole book is
basically about how the family react to it and live with it until eventually he dies, as the
family hoped for. Parable like this can mean anything, such as a sickness or being gay
which is a big issue at the moment here. However, we are not gonna get in too deep on
that aspect, cause its about the surrealism of it all. (Kafka 1999).
Other than books, poetries, and visual art surrealism inspire various aspects such as tv,
movies, fashion, buildings, and interior design, it is a visualization of dream, and the
interaction between conscious and unconscious even politic aspects can be inspired by
surrealism aparently which covered by (Hopkins 2004) in his book, Dada and Surrealism;
a very short introduction.
Back on history, it is not fairly clear of when the movement is considered over, however
in 1966 Andre Breton died, supossedy that could be a turning point or rather the
movement might start to crumble, though it is said that with Bretons death is the dead
of the surrealism as an organized movement, and also in 1969 the first official surrealist
group which Breton formed was dissolved. But then again surrealist is a group of people
as to serrealism is an ism meaning its an ideology, a way of thinking, way of life, a
way of interpretation of things, anything. Which leads me to believe that it is not a kind
of movement that dies, it is growing until this very day, and we certainly have Breton to
thank.

Beloved imagination, what I most like in you your unsparing

quality
Andr Breton

Knowing how to look is a way of inventing.

Salvador Dali

Art is the fatal net which catches these strange moments on

the wing like mysterious butterflies, fleeing the innocence and
distraction of common men.
Giorgio de Chirico

Collage is the noble conquest of the irrational, the coupling of

two realities, irreconcilable in appearance, upon a plane which
apparently does not suit them.
Max Ernst

Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist.
Rene Magritte
The works must be conceived with fire in the soul but executed with
clinical coolness.

Joan Mir

Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be

shackles limiting our vision.

Salvador Dali

Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realized that the

imagery in my mind wasnt insanity. Surrealism to me is reality.

John Lennon

Creativity is that marvelous capacity to grasp mutually distinct

realities and draw a spark from their juxtaposition.
Max Ernst

The interesting thing about the unconsciousness is probably that it is vary from one person
to another. Everybody has their own interpretation of things, surrealism artworks can have a
parable in it, thus it wont be just a random bizarre things being put together but it has a deep
explanation behind it, not just for the artist who created it but also for all who seen it and can feel
what it is trying to tell. And the thing about parable is that, different people can receive a different
feeling from it, depend on what each person understands or have gone through. With that being
said, it should be interesting to know some different opinions from different people and well
start with my own interpretation:
It can be anything and turned into anything, its the magical world of
thoughts and its realistically unrealistic.

From Freud we can learn that our unconscious is just as important as our conscious state as
it holds everything including the ones we dont even realized we have. From the history of the
surrealism, other than we learned about the unconscious theory by Freud, we also learn and
acknowledge several ways of accessing our unconscious through automatic writing, drawing,
painting, sculpting or simply creating any other form of artwork without it being filtered by
reasons. And from several of these interviews being conducted by me through face-to-face and
personal chats, we can see that they are all have a different way of interpreting but basically everyone explaining the same thing, It is all about the beauty of which we all have it real inside our
mind just as much as it is not real outside of it. And surrealism is how we make the supposedly
unreal to appear just real enough, how we can make the unrealistic to be as real as it is inside our
own complex minds.

Get highSurrealism is a high imagination and hallucination thats

created when consuming drugs or when being in a dream world when
time is not present in life. Where now is the future and the future is
now where the fishes fly and the birds swim.

--Ms Claudia, UIC Design lecturer. (C. Latijan 2016, pers. comm.,
7 Sep.)
Kind of art that nobody sees in reality, only in your mind, and you
turned it into reality

--Mayang Tathya, Layouter/Gaphic Designer (M. Tathya 2016,

pers. comm., 7 Sep.).
Takes so much effort and a huge amount of imagination. I like
it because its not something one can easily do they need so deep
inspiration a wild imagination. When I look at one and trying to think
deep it helps me get inspired too. Yeah its awesome to make an artwork
like that it shows the massive creativity one can have.
--Shayma Fais Alas, Consular Secretary at Yemen Embassy. (S. Alas
2016, pers. comm., 8 Sep).
Express our untold mind
--Lauren Sugianto, UIC Design Student. (L. Sugianto 2016, pers. comm.,
8 Sep).

List of References
Aspley, K 2010, Historical dictionary of surrealism, Road, Plymouth PL67PY, accessed 25 August
2016 United Kingdom.Scarecrow Press, Estover
Freud, S 2012, The psychology book big ideas simply explained, accessed 15 September 2016,
Dorling Kindersley Limited, Great Britain.
Gaarder, J Translated by Moller, P. 1994, Sophies world, Berkley edn, Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
Inc., 18 December 2015, New York.
Hopkins, D. 2004, Dada and Surrealism a very short introduction, accessed 25 August 2016
Oxford University, New York.
Kafka, F translated by Johnmston I. 1999, The Metamorphosis, accessed 1 August 2016 planet pdf.
Meggs, P.B. 1998, a history of graphic design, 3rd edn, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., accessed 25
August 2016, Canada.
The Art Story Contributors 2016, The Art Story, accessed 25 August 2016, <http://www.
theartstory.org/movement-surrealism.htm>.
Voorhies, J 2004, Surrealism In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 2000-, accessed 17 August 2016, <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/
hd_surr.htm>.

Image References
Andr Breton 1923, Anonym: Andr Breton, 1924, accessed 29 September 2016, < https://
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andr%C3%A9_Breton.JPG>.
Halberstadt M 1921, Sigmund Freud, accessed 29 September 2016, < https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Sigmund_Freud>.
Vechten C 1939, Salvador Dali, acessed 29 September 2016, < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Salvador_Dal%C3%AD>.

Timeline
1932

1924

First Surrealist Manifesto

Founding of the review La Rvolution Surraliste (runs until 1929)

1926

Aragon breaks with the Surrealist group

1933

Founding of journal Minotaure (runs until

1939)

Formation of Belgian Surrealist group

1934

1929

Second Surrealist Manifesto

Breton expels several dissident members of
Surrealist group
Dal and Bunuels lm Un Chien Andalou

Prague Surrealist group established

International Surrealist Exhibition, London
Exhibition of Surrealist Objects, Charles
Ratton gallery, Paris

1938

1930

Under the title Un Cadavre dissident Surrealists launch attack on Breton

Launch of the journal Le Surralisme au Service de la Rvolution (runs until 1933)

Breton and Trotsky collaborate on the

manifesto Towards an Independent Revolutionary Art Exposition Internationale du
Surralisme at Galerie Beaux-Arts, Paris

1941

Breton and other refugees from Europe

arrive in New York

1942

First Papers of Surrealism exhibition, New

York

1965

1946

Breton returns to France

Lcart absolu, the International

Surrealist Exhibition in Paris
at the Galerie LOeil is the last in which
Breton was involved.

1949

The exhibition, Max Ernst: 30 Years of his

Work, is held in Beverly Hills, California.

1956

A new Surrealist journal, Le Surralisme,

mme, is launched,
with Breton as its editor.

1966

Andr Breton dies suddenly.

SURREALISTS
QUOTES

SURREALISM
Andr Breton (1896-1966)
Andr Breton 1923.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

by Max Halberstadt, 1921.

Salvador Dal (1904-1989)

by Carl Van Vechten on 29 November 1939.

BRIEF
HISTORY