Surrealism

Presentation from the session.



Task 6 

Surrealism is a cultural movement with origins routed in the early 1920s. It was profoundly indebted to Freud's theory of the unconscious as well as the various method's he projected for uncovering a being's subconscious desire's, perhaps most notably dream analysis and the free-association sequences of idea's and words (Warner Marien, 2012: 253).  

Surrealist work was best reflected in visual art/writings and featured elements of juxtaposition, distortion and surprise. It was particularly prevalent in photography with surrealist practitioners such as Brassai and Man Ray. The large majority of Surrealist photography lent itself to psychological innuendoes and imitations, scenarios in which something has either just happened or is about to (Warner Marien, 2010: 253). Key themes explored within Surrealist photography are the representation of sex, the body versus the mind, the unconscious, the ordinary & extraordinary and the female nude.