Surrealist Art

Fülszöveg

Surrealism was a revolution. Unlike such other modern movements as cubism and geometrical abstraction, it was' not based on purely artistic innovation; its aim was nothing less than the liberation, in art and in life, of the resources of the subconscious mind. Many surrealists becames figures of international stature ; any study of them leads right to the heart of the avant-garde art of the twentieth century. Their influence can be traced in a wide variety of cultural phenomenon, from abstract expressionism to today's Underground culture. Sarane Alexandrian traces the development of surrealism from its origins in the Dada anti-art revolt of 1916-1920 to the death of its guiding spirit, André Breton, in 1966, which marks the end of its existence as a formal entity. He discusses and illustrates an astonishing variety of surrealist artists, including not only such giants of the movement as Dali, Miro, Duchamp, Tanguy and Magritte, but a host of other remarkable artists: Wolfgang... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Surrealism was a revolution. Unlike such other modern movements as cubism and geometrical abstraction, it was' not based on purely artistic innovation; its aim was nothing less than the liberation, in art and in life, of the resources of the subconscious mind. Many surrealists becames figures of international stature ; any study of them leads right to the heart of the avant-garde art of the twentieth century. Their influence can be traced in a wide variety of cultural phenomenon, from abstract expressionism to today's Underground culture. Sarane Alexandrian traces the development of surrealism from its origins in the Dada anti-art revolt of 1916-1920 to the death of its guiding spirit, André Breton, in 1966, which marks the end of its existence as a formal entity. He discusses and illustrates an astonishing variety of surrealist artists, including not only such giants of the movement as Dali, Miro, Duchamp, Tanguy and Magritte, but a host of other remarkable artists: Wolfgang Paalen, Hans Bellmer, Victor Brauner, Roland Penrose and many others. Inevitably, any study of surrealism must also deal with the work of a number of great artists who had an affinity with the movement without belonging to it: men such as Arp, Ernst, Gorky, Calder and Giacometti. This book is a thorough and sympathetic account of the one current within the twentieth-century culture which has devoted itself to the pursuit of a sense of magic. THE AUTHOR : Sarane Alexandrian was born in 1927. After graduating in the Faculty of Letters at the Sorbonne in Paris, he studied art history at the Ecole du Louvre. In 1947 he became associated with the leader of the surrealist movement, André Breton, and subsequently edited the surrealist journal Neon, also acting as secretary of the international surrealist bureau Cause. He has written a number of books of criticism and art history, specializing in modern painting, sculpture and architecture, and is the author of two major studies of the surrealist painter Victor Brauner. He has also written two novels, as well as contributing regularly to a number ot international periodicals. Vissza