Dark surrealism: a series of illustrations that depicts the global problems of modern society. Paintings by contemporary artists of the world

Surrealism (from French Surrealisme - super-realism) is an aesthetic trend that arose in France in the first decades of the twentieth century. Surrealism most clearly manifested itself in painting, literature and cinema in France, Spain, the USA ... The largest surrealist artists became at the same time the most famous painters of the twentieth century - these are Salvador Dali, Juan Miro, Max Ernst. In cinema, surrealism is associated with the names of Luis Bunuel and Georges Sadoul, in literature - Andre Breton, Robert Desnos, Louis Aragon, Paul Eluard, Rene Char, Henri Michaud.

The main category of surrealist aesthetics is the so-called automatic writing, that is, creativity without consciousness control, based only on subconscious impulses. Formulating it, the theorists of surrealism relied on the teachings of the French intuitive philosopher Henri Bergson and on the psychoanalysis of Freud-Jung. Of course, in reality, this type of creativity is practically impossible - on the contrary, many paintings by the same Salvador Dali give the impression of carefully constructed symbolic structures, each element of which not only lends itself to decipherment, but also urgently requires it. Another thing is that almost all the works of the surrealists are oriented towards interpretation, they depict not objects, but their ideas and images. Accordingly, the perception of surreal paintings and texts requires the viewer and reader to have a certain mental and emotional preparation, which would allow them to find mutual language. The desire to express one's thoughts and emotions in a complicated language, the fundamental jumping over logical bridges, violent and whimsical associativity, the saturation of the text with indirect meanings make reading surreal works an exciting, but not always easy job.

It is generally accepted that the very word surrealism was “invented” by Guillaume Apollinaire, using it for the first time in one of his plays of 1918 and in the article of the same year “The Zeitgeist and the Poets”. As a term, it was first used two years later, in an article by the future master of this movement, the poet Breton, dedicated to the same Apollinaire. In the same year, the classic text of surrealism was published - the book “Magnetic Ways” by Breton and Supo, showing, according to the authors, the revolutionary possibilities of automatic writing. Thus, surrealism began not with separate texts, but immediately with a kind of “book of samples”, an anthology, which included works of different genres: more or less coherent stories, fragmentary notes and poems.

In his autocommentary on the book, Breton names the high and constantly changing speed of writing as one of its main features, characterizing various texts included in the book from this point of view. At the same time, the author called the completely coherent, rationally built story “Eclipse” the fastest (and therefore the most automatic). And here is what one of the poems of the book looks like - “Curtains” from the cycle “The Sayings of the Hermit Crab”:

Following this, in 1922-1923, the surrealists held a series of sleep sessions (“epidemic sleep”), in which the poet Robert Desnos dictated what he saw in a dream and answered the questions of the participants in the session; responses were recorded and then published as transcripts. According to Breton, Desnos read “in himself, as if in an open book, and did not care at all about saving these sheets, flying in the wind of his life.”

In 1924, the same Breton creates the "Manifesto of Surrealism", which lists carefully selected names of the predecessors of the new direction. Among them we find Swift, the Marquis de Sade, Chateaubriand, Hugo, Poe, Baudelaire and others. famous writers of the past. Moreover, each of them, according to Breton, turns out to be a surrealist in one area: Swift is a surrealist in causticity, Sade is in sadism, Rimbaud is in life practice and in many other ways, and so on.

At the same time, the magazines "Surrealism" and "Surrealist Revolution" began to appear. The same year 1924 dates back to the collective pamphlet of the surrealists on the death of the classic of French literature Anatole France - another manifesto of the emerging trend, which clearly affected another important principle of surrealist aesthetics - the appeal to the so-called black humor.

In 1924, the surrealistic drama “Secrets of Love” by Roger Vitrac appeared (staged in 1927). While in the most pure form surrealism manifested itself most of all in poetry and in plotless short prose, dramaturgy also occupied an important place in his arsenal. According to Breton, “the forms of the surrealist language are best adapted to the dialogue” - than the surrealists were engaged in their everyday games, which were subsequently published by them as collective works. In addition to recordings of Desnos' dream sessions, it was, for example, word game“Exquisite corpse”, the participants of which signed verbs-predicates with subordinate words to the nouns-subjects they could not see. What happens as a result of such games is known: this is a fairly common fun in the life of schoolchildren and students around the world. But only the surrealists decided to declare this simple game a work of art, since it completely coincided with their idea of ​​spontaneity. creative process, its unpredictability.

The same technique was used in other games - for example, when compiling connected dialogues in which the respondent does not know the question being asked to him. As a result, such definitions are obtained: “What is suicide? - Lots of deafening calls; What is the joy of life? - This is a ball in the hands of a schoolboy; What is painting? "It's little white smoke." These dialogues, quite similar to those that the surrealists composed for the heroes of their individual plays, cannot be called absolutely meaningless - on the contrary, an unexpected collision of phrases makes the reader look for hidden meaning, and it usually succeeds. Especially when the authors of questions and answers are professional writers who skillfully and figuratively build their lines.

In the same outwardly absurdist vein, the action of the majority of surrealist plays, the authors of which were T. Tzara, J. Ribmond-Dessen, Breton and Soupault, unfolds. So, in the last play “Please” (1920) we find dialogues written in a playful manner:

Paul: I love you. (Long Kiss.)

Valentine: A milky cloud in a cup of tea...

With regard to large genres, it makes sense to speak only about the greater or lesser influence of surrealist aesthetics, which, by definition, is incapable of organizing a voluminous coherent text. However, when the surrealists deviate somewhat from the principle of automatism, they manage to create a story and even a novel. So, Breton's story "Nadia", early prose Aragon, the novels of R. Crevel, while maintaining the atmosphere of surprise, the chaotic nature of what is happening, which is obligatory for surrealism and demonstrating a bizarre subjective view of the world, are at the same time quite readable. True, in most cases, this prose with great difficulty fits into traditional ideas about genres - rather, here we have a kind of genre mutants.

For example, in 1925, B.Pere and P.Navil created the “Bureau of Surrealistic Research”; by this time, the direction had already received its theoretical platform, prose writers, artists, filmmakers joined the theoretical poets. In the same year, the surrealists published a number of appeals on the pages of their magazine - to the governments of the countries of the world (“Open the prisons. Dissolve the army”), to the rectors of European universities, to the Pope (with a characteristic accusation: “You put God in your pocket”), to the chief physicians of hospitals for the mentally ill. All of them contain angry accusations against the existing order of the world order. In contrast to them, appeals to Buddhist schools and the Dalai Lama are a kind of request for help and spiritual guidance, not devoid of, however, some irony (“Think of new homes for us”).

Continuing the theoretical self-determination of surrealism, in 1927 Louis Aragon created his Treatise on Style, substantiating in it the fundamental refusal of surrealist literature from observing the rules of spelling. In the context of the general doctrine of automatic writing, this sounds quite logical, and the Surrealists consistently observed the anti-rule proposed by Aragon. It was from them that the conscious refusal of poets of various orientations to use the traditional, “prosaic” system of punctuation marks in poetry began.

In general, the surrealist poets significantly expanded the range artistic means European poetry. First, they confirmed the dominance of free verse (vers libre) in it, which did not constrain the poet with traditional formal restrictions in the form of a syllable meter, rhyme, regular strophic, and so on. No less important was the rejection of the mandatory logical connection of elements, the transition from a rigid structure poetic text to the lyrical stream of consciousness, which includes equal rights and natural, and completely arbitrary, random associations. Finally, it is the surrealists who are at the origins of such trends in modern world poetry as concretism and visual poetry. In this sense, it can be said that almost all modern poetry originates in the creative practice of surrealism, which finally liberated the consciousness of the artist of the word.

In the same year, 1927, as Aragon's treatise, the "Dream Visions" by the artist Max Ernst appeared - a kind of continuation of Desnos's experiments. And in next year Breton and Aragon record and publish their "Surrealist Games" - another attempt to create a new genre, which by that time the surrealists had already invented a lot. Moreover, most of them demonstrated the claims of the poets of the new direction to solve not only artistic, but also psychotherapeutic problems.

Finally, in 1929, Breton wrote the second manifesto of surrealism, summing up the ten-year existence of a new direction in art. IN new job the predecessors are once again listed and their contribution to the creation of surrealism is evaluated, the experience is analyzed modern surrealists, a program of new actions is outlined - this time adjusted for the ideas of the occult.

Then, at the end of the 1920s, a split was planned in the camp of the surrealists. Following this, a group of radical surrealists joins the Marxist movement in France, some of them participate in the resistance movement, even join the Communist Party.

In the future, the paths of the surrealists diverge in different sides. Eluard and Aragon abandon the complexity of images inherent in surrealist aesthetics, and gradually turn to neoclassical forms of poetry and prose, which are quite consistent with their sympathies for communist ideology. Other poets and artists continue their formal searches, opening new and new horizons of creativity oriented to the subconscious.

Interest in surrealism flared up repeatedly in the following decades. Thus, his influence was reflected in the work of many Latin American poets, in the poetry and dramaturgy of the United States and Slavic countries in the 1940s-1950s, then in the 1970s. It is safe to say that the techniques developed by the surrealists have had and are having a permanent impact on the art of the twentieth century.

Russian poetry adopts some of the techniques of surrealistic writing quite late, in the 1980s and 1990s. Elements of surreal imagery can be found in some poems by I. Brodsky, G. Sapgir, G. Aigi; The artist and poet Lev Kropivnitsky worked most consistently with surrealistic poetics in the 1970s and 1980s.

As a rule, Dali immediately comes to mind, but surrealism is full of many other wonderful and talented artists. One post is not enough to tell about each, and choosing the top 10 surrealists will be a real torture for me. Therefore, I present to your attention the top ten, just 10 of those whose names first hit my head, to be honest;)

1. Salvador Dali (1904-1989)- To It would seem that this person needs no introduction and his name is known even to those who are far from art. Salvador is one of the greatest figures of surrealism, and indeed artistic world generally. In addition to unique works, Dali is known for his unusual images and extravagance.

"I'm not a surrealist , I am surrealism

- Salvador spoke about himself without undue modesty. Reading books about him, watching biographies, you can often hear from his environment that literally everything the artist touched has already become surrealism.

“I am completely normal. And the one who does not understand my painting is abnormal, the one who does not like Velazquez, the one who is not interested in what time it is on my spread dials - they show the exact time, after all. Salvador Dali

2. Max Ernst (1891-1976)-another equally bright representative of surrealism, the master frottage and collage . Ernst did not study anywhere, they say about such people - a self-taught artist. Interesting fact: From 1909 he studied philosophy at the University of Bonn, but soon left this occupation to devote himself entirely to art. During his studies, he thoroughly studied psychology and was interested in the art of the mentally ill.

And in 1930 the artist collaborated with Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel in the film Andalusian Dog. I will not torment and delay the time with chatter, which can already be found on the Internet, and will go directly to some of Ernest's paintings:

3. Rene Magritte (1898-1967)- the paintings of this artist are based on the effect of removing a thing from its usual meaning, for example, we see a pipe, but then the signature “This is not a pipe” is right there. In Magritte, unlike other major surrealists, objects almost never lose their "objectivity": they do not spread, do not turn into their own shadows. However, the very strange combination of these objects is striking and makes you think.

"Surrealism is a reality freed from banal meaning"

- Rene Magritte

4. Jacek Yerka (born in 1952)- Yerka is creative pseudonym talented Polish artist Jacek Kowalski. The artist has a prestigious World Fantasy Award as best artist in the realm of fantasy art.

« It seems to me that the 50s were a kind of golden age. This happy years of my childhood, filled with the magic of the surrounding world. In my work, this is reflected in buildings, furniture and various pre-war knick-knacks. If I had to draw a computer, I would definitely apply pre-war aesthetics to it too » Jacek Yerka says

5. Vladimir Kush (year of birth: 1965)- was born and raised in Moscow, now lives in Hawaii. Kush has 4 galleries in the US, and plans for the future to open more galleries Worldwide. It was really difficult to choose only 4 works for the post! His fantasy world beckons to itself and involuntarily awakens the desire to find yourself there:

6. Konstantin Kalinovich (born in 1959)- an amazing artist from Russia. Corresponding Member of the Royal Society of Painters and Engravers (Great Britain), owner a large number international prizes and awards in the field of printed graphics. The artist's works are in the Royal Academy of Arts (London, UK), in the Russian National Library(St. Petersburg, Russia), at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art (Iowa, USA), at the University of Wales (Aberystwyth, UK), at the Davis Museum (Wellesley, USA), as well as in private collections different countries peace.

7. Rafal Olbinsky (born in 1947) - The Polish illustrator has been living and working in the USA for a long time. However, his formation as an artist took place in his native Poland, where Rafal grew up and was brought up in cultural environment theater community. No doubt, Olbinsky is talented, but this is exactly the case when, in my opinion, he lacks individuality.

8. Alex Andreev (born in 1972)- artist from St. Petersburg. Most likely you often met his drawings on the Internet.

He writes briefly about himself: “There are no cockroaches in my head. They have long been devoured by other, much larger and more dangerous creatures.

9. Todd Schorr (born 1954)- a unique artist working in the genre of pop surrealism. Tod Schorr's paintings are a delight in pop culture experiences, a crazy mix of Las Vegas neon lights, old Disney cartoons, LSD trips, Tangier bazaar barkers, Lewis Carroll mysticism, Dali and Picasso paintings, TIME magazine covers, big top circus shows. Tod Schorr lives and works in Beverly Hills, California. He is one of the most expensive and successful artists in the US.

10. Greg Simkins (born 1975)- I will not lie, calling him one of the favorite modern surrealists. For a while, Greg was doing graffiti under the nickname Craola. He also took part in the development of computer games like Tony Hawk 2X, Spiderman 2 and Ultimate Spiderman, as well as working with companies like Disney, Mattel, Vans and Converse. He did not have to be an unknown artist for a long time and soon received a bachelor's degree fine arts at the art studio of California State University, Long Beach.

I add only 4 of his works, but I strongly recommend that you see the rest!

.... I know, I know it's time to wrap up! Only 10 were planned, but I can't help but list the incredible Mark A Raiden A (born 1963). His paintings are sought after by collectors from all over the world. Among his clients are such celebrities as Stephen King, Elton Brown, Leonardo DiCaprio, Danny Elfman, Chris Carter, Bridget Fonda and many others.

In Raiden's own words: “I want to preliminarily point out that it is not really me who paints my paintings. It's all Magic Monkey. She comes to my studio late at night when everything is quiet. Unfathomable things happen when most people are asleep. I help the Magic Monkey, but she does almost everything. My greatest work is to help her appear. She is extremely whimsical. Right hemisphere the brain is very important; i have to switch my mind out logical thinking on the creative, release free feelings. If I start to think a lot, then it would be better to take a nap or play with my son. Because everything should happen naturally, almost unconsciously. When you believe, everything will work out. You will feel it. It's like magic. The monkey comes, knocks on the door, we get paints and brushes from the drawer, we go to create art"

There is a lot of controversy about his works - some find them evil, and the artist is mentally ill, while others see the meaning in Mark's paintings and admire his paintings. Which type are you, decide for yourself:

Dear Gossips and Gossips, what is your opinion about surrealism and whose work did you like the most? How far has modern surrealism gone from early surrealism (unless, of course, it can be described as such), and in what direction? I'll listen with pleasure! Not saying goodbye;)

Introduction

Relevance: Today in Russia there are many artists whose works are unique and brilliant, but in most cases their creators (and the works themselves) remain unknown.

An artist's work is always a discovery that resolves the contradiction between the well-established known - the collective experience of previous generations, and the new unknown - the individual experience of the artist, which leads to the search for a new meaning.

In my research, I compare the paintings of the famous surrealist artist Salvador Dali and an artist almost unknown in Russia, our fellow countryman, Sergey Kharchenov.

Problem: Everyone who saw S. Kharchenov's paintings involuntarily compared them with the works of S. Dali. In his circle, the Yenisei artist is even called the Siberian Salvador Dali, but the artist himself categorically disagrees with this. Realizing the injustice and falsity of this opinion, I decided to conduct my own research.

S. Kharchenov is practically unknown in Russia, but his paintings are in many private collections, including abroad in Sweden, Poland, Italy, France, Germany, Holland, Japan, China, Korea, the USA and even on the island of Malta. Why is the artist unknown in the Motherland, because we should know our talents and be proud of them? There are currently no studies dedicated to creativity our talented fellow countryman, no descriptions of his paintings, only "folk rumor".

The purpose of the study: to prove that the paintings of S. Kharchenov are not a blind imitation of S. Dali, they are fundamentally different from the works of the famous surrealist.

Hypothesis: the work of S. Kharchenov is radically different from the work of S. Dali.

To achieve the goal and test the hypothesis, the following tasks were set:

· to study the available literature on the biography and work of artists;

· get acquainted with big amount works of both artists;

· to analyze the structure and content of the two most similar paintings;

· Conduct a comparative analysis of the two selected paintings. The research methodology is complex. Heuristic methods of structure and content analysis were used to solve problems works of art visual arts and method comparative analysis works.

Surrealism

What is surrealism

Surrealism (French surrealisme - super-realism) is a trend in literature and art of the 20th century. established in the 1920s. Originating in France on the initiative of the writer A. Breton, surrealism soon became international direction. Surrealists believed that creative energy comes from the sphere of the subconscious, which manifests itself during sleep, hypnosis, morbid delirium, sudden insights, automatic actions (random wandering of a pencil on paper, etc.). Surrealism in painting developed in two directions. Some artists introduced the unconscious principle into the process of creating paintings, in which free-flowing images predominated, arbitrary shapes, passing into abstraction (Max Ernst, A. Mason, Miro, Arp). Another direction, which was headed by Salvador Dali, was based on the illusory accuracy of reproducing an unreal image that arises in the subconscious. His paintings are distinguished by a careful manner of writing, accurate transmission of chiaroscuro, perspective, which is typical for academic painting. The viewer, succumbing to the persuasiveness of illusory painting, is drawn into a labyrinth of deceptions and unsolvable mysteries: solid objects spread, dense objects become transparent, incompatible objects twist and turn inside out, massive volumes become weightless, and all this creates an image that is impossible in reality. General Features the art of surrealism: fantasy of the absurd, alogism, paradoxical combinations of forms, visual instability, variability of images. The main goal of the surrealists was through the unconscious to rise above the limitations of both the material and the ideal world, to continue rebellion against the emasculated spiritual values ​​of bourgeois civilization.

Surrealism in the 21st century

It is customary to say that surrealism came in 1924 and retreated in 1969. But some researchers believe that we now live in an era of developed surrealism - which means that nothing has ended, on the contrary, everything is just beginning.

At one time, the surrealists argued that the unconscious (non-rational) is the ultimate truth. From the Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud, they borrowed the idea that there is no difference between a healthy person and sick. They continued the thought like this: madness is not controlled by the mind, therefore it is better to create in fits of madness (of course, artificially caused).

S. Dali: “All my claims in the field of painting are to materialize with the most militant imperativeness and accuracy of details the images of concrete irrationality.” The Surrealists denied social role art, but time outwitted them. Surrealistic forms were enthusiastically accepted by architects and designers, shocking cinema became the property of the masses and, in fact, commonplace.

Surrealists wanted to change consciousness, did their grandiose plans come true? Surrealist ideas have penetrated all spheres and changed our world beyond recognition, although we did not even notice it. “The fruits of the unconscious are flourishing everywhere. In the visual sphere, cinema, art and even literature. But did the surrealists want that, did they aspire to such a life?

"I believe that in the future, dream and reality - these two seemingly different states - will merge into some kind of absolute reality, into surreality." Andre Breton.

Freud: "One of the surest ways to create a sense of unsettling strangeness is to create uncertainty about whether the character that appears to our eyes is a living being or an automaton." Freud was a favorite ideologue of the Surrealists. He was adored by Salvador Dali and respected by Andre Breton. His ideas about the release of the unconscious in a dream were intertwined with the surrealists' rejection of sanity. At the beginning of the 21st century, when cinema became the mainstay of surrealism, our unconscious is entertained by robotic people, animal-like monsters, animated dolls and the sinister dead. And all this already seems familiar to us, ordinary, we do not consider it surrealism. Is that so?

“In surrealism, we deal exclusively with furor. It is important to understand that we are talking not about a simple rearrangement of words or an arbitrary redistribution of visual images, but about the re-creation of a state of mind that can compete in its intensity with true madness. André Breton, father of surrealism.

Each surreal canvas carries the effect of surprise, its own secret, its extraordinary life, as well as a string of riddles and philosophical puzzles that help stimulate the mind and develop the imagination. And the one who writes in the style of surrealism is not just an artist, he is a philosopher of the mind.

At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, the followers of the great surrealists still excite the viewer with their extraordinary illusory works, just as many years ago they were excited by the surrealist works of Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Miro, Frida Kahlo, Marc Parkes, Rene Magritte.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/one_love.jpg" alt=" Lovers. (1928). Author: Rene Magritte. | Photo: artchive.ru" title="Lovers. (1928).

But there are well-thought-out and balanced plots in surrealism. What can be seen on the example of the work of the Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte. Everyone knows that being in creative search, Salvador Dali, falling asleep, held a spoon over a large copper basin, which, when falling, woke the artist. And waking up abruptly, he seemed to pull out a piece of his vision from a deep sleep for the plot of the future canvas.

Modern surrealist painters also create their own unique world of optical illusions, fantastic dreams from the depths of their imagination and ghost world dreams that will not leave anyone indifferent.

In the world of colorful dreams and ancient Greek myths by artist Wojtek Siudmak

Wojtek Siudmak was born in the ancient city of Wieluni in the center of Poland. Educated at the Academy fine arts in Warsaw. But since 1966 he has been living and working in France. The canvases of Wojtek Siudmak are an unusual mixture of styles: hyperrealism, fantastic realism and surrealism. He calls himself a fantastic hyperrealist.

The unique universe, filled with personal symbols and imaginary structures, which are organically combined into a single whole, magnetically attracts the viewer and immerses in the world of ancient gods, colorful dreams and ancient Greek myths.

Between dream and dream. Surrealism by Anatoly Leushin

The main genre of the artist's work is romanticism, surrealism. More than sixty creations of the master are in private collections in Europe and America.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/leyshin-004.jpg" alt=" Wandering Island. (2002). Author: Anatoly Leushin. | Photo: art-vernissage.ru." title="Wandering Island. (2002).

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/leyshin-006.jpg" alt="Omen. Author: Anatoly Leushin. | Photo: art-vernissage.ru." title="Omen.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/leyshin-002.jpg" alt="Flying Dutchman. (2010). Author: Anatoly Leushin. | Photo: art-vernissage.ru." title="Flying Dutchman. (2010).

Amazing portraits of world famous people through optical illusions by Oleg Shuplyak

original surrealism talented artist from Ukraine, creating unique illusions in portraits famous personalities captivated millions of viewers. Each painting by Oleg is unique in its own way. compositional solution and in the skillful combination of many different images. Displaying the two sides of one illusion, the artist takes us step by step from one composition to another.

Master works in different techniques and directions: easel painting, church painting and restoration, in the genres of associative symbolism, postmodernism, abstractionism, surrealism and realism.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/shuplyak-005.jpg" alt=" Shakespeare. (2011). Author: Oleg Shuplyak. ¦ Photo: livejournal.com." title="Shakespeare. (2011).

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/shuplyak-007.jpg" alt="Gauguin. (2012). Author: Oleg Shuplyak. ¦ Photo: livejournal.com." title="Gauguin. (2012).

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/shuplyak-004.jpg" alt="Leonardo da Vinci. (2012). Author: Oleg Shuplyak. ¦ Photo: livejournal.com." title="Leonardo da Vinci. (2012).

Fantastic illusions by Alex Fishgoit

WITH philosophical point of view, these works are a reflection on the organic process of the eternal striving for the sublime and irreversible changes in the Universe.