The Surrealist art movement was dedicated to expressing the imagination in a method that was free from the control, convention, and reason. Surrealism began in the 1920’s and ended in the 1930’s. Surrealism was similar to Dadaism in that it was anti rationalist, but was different in that it was lighter in spirit. One of the major influences on the Surrealist movement was Freud’s model of the subconscious, and emerging theories on our perception of reality. Surrealism was founded in Paris in 1924 by Andre Breton who created a Manifesto of Surrealism. The aim of the movement was an attempt to discover a super-reality by interpreting dream and reality together; two conditions that often contradict one another. In essence, Surrealists love incongruity, spontaneity, and the randomness of life. Famous Surrealist artists include Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Georgia O’Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, MC Escher, Joan Miro, Rene Magritte, and Man Ray.
Max Ernst
Max Ernst was born in Germany in 1891 and studied philosophy at the Bonn university from 1909 to 1911. Max Ernst did not have any formal art education but he had his first exhibition in Berlin in 1913, and in the same year went to Paris. In Paris Max Ernst discovered the works of Picasso and de Chirico and in 1914 he met Arp. Max Ernst went through a Dadaist phase of art and founded the Cologne dada group and began creating Fatagaga collages. The first exhibit from this group was banned by officials because they deemed it immoral. In 1922 Max Ernst moved to Paris, contributed to many Dadaist publications, and helped found the Surrealist movement. Max Ernst moved to New York in 1942 and lived there until his return to France in 1954 until his death in 1976.
