Suprarealismul european în

pictură

"Este, oare, posibilă o pictură suprarealistă?"

André Breton
Max Ernst
1891-1976
 „Pentru mine, pictura nu înseamnă nici amuzament, nici
inventarea plastică a realității percepute; de fiecare dată, ea
trebuie să presupună: invenție, descoperire, revelație.”
 s-a nascut la 2 aprilie 1891 în orășelul Brühl, lângă Köln.

 citește foarte mult, cunoaște operele lui Sigmund Freud, Guillaume

Apollinaire si Arthur Rimbaud.

 în 1922 se mută la Paris, iar doi ani mai târziu devine unul dintre
fondatorii grupării suprarealiste. Pentru a stimula fluxul de imagini
din inconștient, Ernst începe să folosească tehnicile de frottage și
decalomania.
 cunoscător al filosofiei și al psihanalizei lui Freud, artistul și-a
transformat creația, fie că este vorba despre sculptură, pictură sau
colaje, într-o modalitate de exprimare a experiențelor personale.

 Max Ernst nu a primit viza pentru a participa, în 1921, la expoziția

sa de la Paris organizată de André Breton. (Franța fiind încă
dominată după Primul Război Mondial de sentimente antigermane).

 în 1954 primește Marele Premiu la Bienala de la Veneția.

The Elephant Celebes
(1921)
 The Elephant Celebes was painted in Cologne in 1921 and was Max Ernst's
first large picture. In this painting Ernst has used his earlier university studies in
psychology and philosophy, in which he became familiar with the writings of Friedrich
Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud, to provides the basis for a pictorial exploration of the
irrational subconscious.

 This painting grew directly out of Ernst's use of collage from 1919 onwards to
produce bizarre combinations of images, though no preliminary collages or sketches
were made for it. The idea of the painting appeared spontaneously on the canvas with
few alterations as it progressed.

 The boiler-like monster to which the title refers is, like the rest of the painting,
highly ambiguous. It has a horned head with apparently sightless eyes, but a pair of
tusks projecting on the left suggests the possible presence of a second head (or
perhaps the real head?) on the other side. Its neck seems to consist of a long snake-like
coil which emerges from a hole in its upper section; the top is surmounted by a
brightly-coloured construction containing a mysterious eye.
The Triumph of
Surrealism
(1937)
 The Triumph of Surrealism was painted by Max Ernst in 1937. The
painting's initial name is The Angel of Hearth and Home, and it was retitled by
Ernst in 1938. Ernst created this painting for the Exposition international du
surrealism which took place at the Galerie de Beaux-Arts in Paris. This painting is
one of few in his career that were inspired from political events.
 Ernst painted The Triumph of Surrealism shortly after the defeat of the
Spanish Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. In this conflict, Spanish fascist
leaders were supported by Germany and Italy in their victory. Ernst's goal was to
depict the chaos that he saw spreading over Europe and the ruin that fascism
brings to countries.
Attirement of the
bride
 Attirement of the bride is an example of Max Ernst's veristic or
illusionistic Surrealism, in which a traditional technique is applied to an
incongruous or unsettling subject. The theatrical, evocative scene has roots in
late nineteenth-century Symbolist painting, especially that of Gustave Moreau.
It also echoes the settings and motifs of sixteenth-century German art.
 The willowy, swollen-bellied figure types recall those of Lucas Cranach
the Elder in particular. The architectural backdrop with its strong contrast of
light and shadow and its inconsistent perspective shows the additional
influence of Giorgio de Chirico, whose work had overwhelmed Ernst when he
first saw it in 1919.
 The pageantry and elegance of the image are contrasted with its
primitivizing aspects - the garish colors, the animal and monster forms - and
the blunt phallic Symbolism of the poised spearhead. The central scene is
contrasted as well with its counterpart in the picture-within-a-picture at the
upper left. In this detail the bride appears in the same pose, striding through a
landscape of overgrown classical ruins.
The Temptation
of Saint Anthony
 The Temptation of Saint Anthony is a book which the French author Gustave
Flaubert spent practically his whole life fitfully working on. It is an often-repeated subject
in history of art and literature, concerning the supernatural temptation reportedly faced by
Saint Anthony the Great during his sojourn in the Egyptian desert. In this narrative, St.
Anthony's faith triumphs over the temptations and horrors of sin and evil.

 The visual motifs of St. Anthony's tale has inspired countless artists to draw their worst
nightmares, and became a popular theme in Western culture.

 Various artists produced paintings on this subject, and contest was won by Max
Ernst, whose work was duly shown in the film. However, the most well-known of version
of The Temptation of Saint Anthony is the version created by a failed contestant, Salvador
Dali.
Pleiades
The Virgin Spanking the Christ Child
Before Three Witnesses: Andre Breton,
Paul Eluard and the Painter
(1926)
LEONORA CARRINGTON
1917-2011
 Leonora Carrington este cunoscută pentru lucrările sale suprarealiste, a studiat
pictura în Florența, ulterior a urmat cursurile Școlii de Artă din Londra.

 astăzi, lucrările Leonorei Carrington sunt incluse în colecțiile:The Museum

of Modern Art - New York, colecția Peggy Guggenheim - Veneția și
Tate Gallery - Londra, printre altele.

 pictura și scrierile acesteia conțin un simbolism personal puternic, folosind adesea

calul ca alter-ego.
 creația Leonorei Carrington abordează ideile de identitate sexuală, dar
evită stereotipizarea suprarealistă a femeilor ca obiect al dorinței masculine.

 se observă faptul că aceasta împărtășește interesul suprarealiștilor pentru

inconștient.
The Meal of Lord
Candlestick
(1938)
 This painting captures Carrington's rebellious spirit and rejection of her
Catholic upbringing. "Lord Candlestick" was a nickname that Carrington used to
refer to her father.
 The title of this work emphasizes Carrington's dismissal of her father's
paternal oversight. In this scene, Carrington also transforms the ritual of the
Eucharist into a dynamic display of barbarism: gluttonous female figures devour
a male infant lying on the table.
 The table itself is a representation of one used in the great banquet hall in
her parent's estate, Crookhey Hall. Carrington intentionally inverts the symbolic
order of maternity and religion as a statement of her own subversive move
towards personal freedom in France.
Portrait of Max Ernst
(1939)
 This early painting by Carrington was completed as a tribute to her relationship
with the Surrealist artist Max Ernst. In the foreground, Ernst is shown enshrouded in a
strange red cloak and yellow striped stockings holding an opaque, oblong lantern.

 A white horse, a symbol Carrington frequently included in her paintings as her

animal surrogate, is shown poised and frozen in the background, observing Ernst.
The two are alone in a frozen and desolate wasteland, a landscape symbolic of the
feelings Carrington experienced while living with Ernst in occupied France.
 Self-Portrait
(c. 1937-1938)
 This painting perfectly summarizes Carrington's skewed perception of reality
and exploration of her own femininity. The artist has painted herself posed in the
foreground on a blue armchair, wearing androgynous riding clothes, facing outward
to the viewer.

 She extends her hand toward a female hyena, and the hyena imitates
Carrington's posture and gesture, just as the artist's wild mane of hair echoes the
coloring of the hyena's coat. Carrington frequently used the hyena as a surrogate
for herself in her art and writing; she was apparently drawn to this animal's
rebellious spirit and its ambiguous sexual characteristics