Luis Bunuel: Un Chien Andalou & Other Spanish Influenced Writing
Surrealism:
Surrealists are similar to the dadaists. They used Freud's theories on the unconscious to inspire their work. Freud's theories, the Surrealists believed, helped paint the true or authentic self through dream imagery, metaphor, and various tropes. They believed this dream-state was the true reality (the "surreal"). The "Pope of Surrealism," was the French writer André Breton (1896-1966), joined by writers like Louis Bunuel, Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) and Isidore Ducasse (pseudonym: Comte de Lautrémont, 1846-1870). One quote from Lautrémont's prose-poem Les Chants de Maldoror expresses the Surrealist spirit concisely: "the chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella!"
The Modern period filmmaker Man Ray is a good example of an artist influenced by the Surrealist movement. Here are a few film clips...The Return to Reason (1923) & the infamous Ballet Mecanique (1924).
What caused this movement? Freud for one. But also Art schools and studios stressed the methodical application of one's skill to the point that the student, "let go of the constraints of learned skills and traditional methods of making art. They sought out children's art, "primitive" art and "outsider" art (such as the art made by patients in mental institutions) to stoke the fires of their almost incoherent inventions."
French poet Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) coined the term: Surreal. Other famous artists of the early 20th century Surrealist movement include: Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau. André Breton published his "Manifesto of Surrealism" in 1924, defining the term for us today. We read the word "surreal" to mean the absurd combinations or strange juxtaposition of things, like those found in dreams. Peanut butter sandwiches falling from a sky the color of marmalade, as a train rides through the ocean waves toward a beach where daisies the size of buildings shade pigs sunbathing. That sort of thing.
"The Exquisite Corpse" Exercise: To play:
Key characteristics of Surrealism:
After the film, let's take a look at a few more Spanish poets and writers. In particular the poet/playwright: Federico Garcia Lorca. At the end of class today, we will be getting the book The Stranger by Albert Camus.
HOMEWORK: Please read the post above and below this one. Take a look at any one of these paintings (you can also find surrealistic paintings online if you prefer). Choose one and write a story that uses the picture as the opening, middle, or end of the story. Drafts should be kept for your next portfolio.
Surrealists are similar to the dadaists. They used Freud's theories on the unconscious to inspire their work. Freud's theories, the Surrealists believed, helped paint the true or authentic self through dream imagery, metaphor, and various tropes. They believed this dream-state was the true reality (the "surreal"). The "Pope of Surrealism," was the French writer André Breton (1896-1966), joined by writers like Louis Bunuel, Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) and Isidore Ducasse (pseudonym: Comte de Lautrémont, 1846-1870). One quote from Lautrémont's prose-poem Les Chants de Maldoror expresses the Surrealist spirit concisely: "the chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella!"
The Modern period filmmaker Man Ray is a good example of an artist influenced by the Surrealist movement. Here are a few film clips...The Return to Reason (1923) & the infamous Ballet Mecanique (1924).
What caused this movement? Freud for one. But also Art schools and studios stressed the methodical application of one's skill to the point that the student, "let go of the constraints of learned skills and traditional methods of making art. They sought out children's art, "primitive" art and "outsider" art (such as the art made by patients in mental institutions) to stoke the fires of their almost incoherent inventions."
French poet Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) coined the term: Surreal. Other famous artists of the early 20th century Surrealist movement include: Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau. André Breton published his "Manifesto of Surrealism" in 1924, defining the term for us today. We read the word "surreal" to mean the absurd combinations or strange juxtaposition of things, like those found in dreams. Peanut butter sandwiches falling from a sky the color of marmalade, as a train rides through the ocean waves toward a beach where daisies the size of buildings shade pigs sunbathing. That sort of thing.
"The Exquisite Corpse" Exercise: To play:
- Write down any word at the top of a blank piece of paper.
- Fold the paper down so that it hides the word and pass the paper to another person.
- Have that person write down a random word and fold the paper over the word.
- Pass the paper to another person and have him/her repeat: write the random word and fold to hide that word.
- When the paper is completely folded, open the paper to expose the list of words.
- Read the list of words as if it were a sentence.
- Draw one image, fold down the paper and pass the paper along to the next person.
- The chain of random words or images would be considered a cadavre exquis - an exquisite corpse.
Key characteristics of Surrealism:
- The exploration of the dream and unconsciousness as a valid form of reality, inspired by Sigmund Freud's writings.
- A willingness to depict images of perverse sexuality, scatology, decay and violence.
- The desire to push against the boundaries of socially acceptable behaviors and traditions in order to discover pure thought and the artist's true nature.
- The incorporation of chance and spontaneity.
- The influence of revolutionary 19th century poets, such as Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud and Isidore Ducasse.
- Emphasis on the mysterious, marvelous, mythological and irrational in an effort to make art ambiguous and strange.
- Fundamentally, Surrealism gave artists permission to express their most basic drives: hunger, sexuality, anger, fear, dread, ecstasy, and so forth.
- Exposing these uncensored feelings as if in a dream still exists in many form of art to this day.
- Two stylistic schools: Biomorphism and Naturalistic Surrealism.
- Max Ernst, Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale, 1924. (Museum of Modern Art, New York).
- Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory, 1931. (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
After the film, let's take a look at a few more Spanish poets and writers. In particular the poet/playwright: Federico Garcia Lorca. At the end of class today, we will be getting the book The Stranger by Albert Camus.
HOMEWORK: Please read the post above and below this one. Take a look at any one of these paintings (you can also find surrealistic paintings online if you prefer). Choose one and write a story that uses the picture as the opening, middle, or end of the story. Drafts should be kept for your next portfolio.
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