Surrealism Art and Their Artists

Surrealist artists sought to explore the unconscious mind through art and
psychoanalysis, creating dreamlike images full of symbolism and abstraction.
Take a look at some of the movement’s most iconic Surrealism art.
Surrealism was an avant-garde artistic and literary movement that emerged in
the early 20th century. It focused on deep emotional expression through
artistic creation and free association. It drew heavily on psychoanalysis,
which delved into the unconscious mind to identify repressed urges or
traumas. Influenced by psychoanalytic theory, Surrealists used art to delve
into the unconscious mind. This was a method of self-analysis, unlocking
underlying attitudes, desires or traumas and transposing them into art with
symbolism. The use of psychoanalysis resulted in highly emotional, visceral
and often shocking imagery. Surrealism represented a turning point in
modernism and the function of art in society as it diverged from traditional
aesthetics in favor of self-analysis. Below are 10 famous paintings of the
movement and their artists.
The art movement, which blossomed in the 1920s with André
Breton at the helm, rejected the society’s oppressive
rationality. Surrealist artists deployed automatic drawing or
writing to unlock ideas from their subconscious, often
depicting elements from their dreamscapes.
Key dates: 1924 – 1966
Key regions: Paris, New York
Key words: surrealist, subconscious, irrational, automatism,
dreams
Key artists: André Breton, Salvador Dalí, André Masson, Rene
Magritte, Joan Miró, Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, Frida Kahlo, Diego
Rivera, Meret Oppenheim, Jean Arp, Man Ray, Wifredo Lam

Celebes (1921) by Max Ernst

Celebes by Max Ernst, 1921
Max Ernst was a German artist, sculptor and poet who was a key member in
both the Dada and Surrealism movements. His work is known for its
experimentation with illusion and the irrational and he became a leading
member in the use of Automatism. He also pioneered a method called
‘frottage,’ which consisted of placing paper on uneven surfaces then rubbing
a pencil over it to create the silhouette of the surface.
Celebes depicts a Sudanese corn bin that has been transformed into a
mechanical elephant-like monster. Like many surrealist paintings, the piece is
set in a vast, desolate landscape. At the forefront of the piece is a headless
female figure. There are numerous elements of disjointed iconography
including flying fish, oil cans, and a pole as if images from within a dream.
These apparently random elements are products of surrealist automatism and
the free association of the unconscious mind.
Carnival of Harlequin (1924-25) by Joan Miró

Carnival of Harlequin by Joan Miró, 1924-25,

Joan Miró was a Spanish artist and a prominent member of the 20th-century
avant-garde. His work was characterized by bright color use, geometric
shapes and perspective shifts. He used these elements to create simplistic yet
evocative abstract pieces. The Harlequin’s Carnival focuses on a fragmented
harlequin at a carnival scene. The color palette features primary colors
against a grey background. It exemplifies the symbolism and free association
of Surrealism with disconnected elements that come together to form a
cohesive piece. The background window has a geometric, abstracted sun and
mountain. Many of the figures in the painting are anthropomorphized and
appear to be dancing, highlighting the scene’s nonsensical nature.

The Broken Column (1944) by Frida Kahlo

The Broken Column by Frida Kahlo, 1944, Museo Dolores Olmedo

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter and a prominent contributor to the

Surrealism movement. She was known primarily for her highly
autobiographical self-portraits. These portraits often highlighted her lifelong
struggle with illness and disability, featuring deeply personal and sometimes
disturbing imagery. Her work also drew significant inspiration from Mexican
culture and often included traditional Mexican iconography or clothing,
bright colors and flowers.
The Broken Column represents the constraints of disability on Kahlo’s life.
At age 6, she contracted polio, which left her with a permanent limp. She was
later involved in a bus accident, during which a metal pole impaled her pelvis
and left her disabled for the rest of her life. She dawns a back brace in the
painting, which she was required to wear after her accident. Her spine is
symbolized by an ancient Greek column that is fragmented within her body
to represent her physical fragility after her accident. She is also penetrated by
many nails, representing her constant pain and vulnerability.

Henry Ford Hospital (1932) by Frida Kahlo

Henry Ford Hospital by Frida Kahlo, Museo Dolores Olmedo

Henry Ford Hospital portrays Frida Kahlo laying in a hospital bed after
suffering a miscarriage. She is central to the painting, hemorrhaging and
surrounded by images of fertility, health and childbirth. Behind her are
images of urban industrialism. A bus accident during her youth had crushed
her pelvis and spine, disabling her for life and leaving her infertile. The piece,
therefore, represents her lasting feelings of vulnerability, helplessness and
pain that were caused by her accident and her struggle with womanhood and
infertility.
The Philosopher’s Lamp (1936) by René Magritte
The Philosopher’s Lamp by René Magritte, private collection

René Magritte was a Belgian artist and a prolific member of the Surrealism
movement. He has created numerous surrealist masterpieces and remained an
enduring contributor to the period throughout his career. His art was known
for its elements of illusionism, irony and wit. He also introduced several
iconic motifs into the movement, the most famous being a tobacco pipe. He
was influenced by fellow artists Max Ernst and Giorgio de Chirico.
The Philosopher’s Lamp features Magritte’s use of the pipe motif. It is a self-
portrait, depicting Magritte’s profile with a table in the background.
Magritte’s nose extends, almost like an elephant trunk, into the pipe as if to
parody the philosopher’s intelligence. The table behind him holds a candle
extending up like a snake, a worm or a cord of an electric lamp. The piece is
full of humorous irony and unrealistic elements, exemplifying the satirical
nature of Surrealism.

René Magritte. The False Mirror. Paris 1929

A huge, isolated eye stares out at the viewer. Its left, inner corner has a vivid,
viscous quality. The anatomical detailing of this area and its surface sheen contrast
with the matte, dead-black of the eye’s pupil, which floats, unmoored, against a
limpid, cloud-filled sky of cerulean blue. Although the areas surrounding the eye’s
iris are carefully shaded and modeled, giving the illusion of a play of light on
three-dimensional form, the sky displays no trace of convexity; its puffy clouds are
beautifully rendered, but not its blue expanse. As a result, the sky appears as
though seen through a circular window rather than mirrored in the spherical, liquid
surface of an eye.The eye was a subject that fascinated many Surrealist poets and
visual artists, given its threshold position between inner, subjective self and the
external world. The Surrealist photographer Man Ray once owned The False
Mirror, which he memorably described as a painting that “sees as much as it itself
is seen.” His words capture the work’s unsettling character: it places the viewer on
the spot, caught between looking through and being watched by an eye that proves
to be empty. It opens onto a void that, for all its radiant, cumulus-cloud-filled
beauty, seems to deny the possibility of human existence.

The Persistence of Memory (1931) by Salvador Dalí

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí, 1931, MoMA

Salvador Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory (1931)

Arguably Dalí’s most famous artwork, The Persistence of
Memory portrays clocks, otherwise hard objects, becoming
inexplicably limp and bendable. Here, time literally bends,
and the creature draped across the centre of the canvas
seems to be simultaneously melting, sleeping and dying.
Dalí’s “hand-painted dream photographs” present his absurd
visions and dreams in an unbelievably tangible and realistic
manner.
The Persistence of Memory is one of the most well-known surrealist
masterpieces, introducing Dalí’s melting clock motif into 20th-century
modernism. The piece is set along a Catalonian coastline with the sea in the
background. Central to the painting is a limp shape resembling a facial
profile, surrounded by melting clocks and a stopwatch. It draws attention
between notions of time and reality, alluding to the infinite metamorphosis of
the world we live in.
Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)

Dalí painted this work just prior to the start of the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939
and said it was evidence of the prophetic power of his subconscious mind. He
depicts the anxiety of the time, visually predicting the violence, horror, and doom
many Spaniards felt during General Franco's later rule. Two grossly elongated and
exaggerated figures struggle, locked in a tensely gruesome fight where neither
seems to be the victor. To quote Dalí, the painting shows "a vast human body
breaking out into monstrous excrescences of arms and legs tearing at one another
in a delirium of autostrangulation." The boiled bean referenced in the title most
likely refers to the simple stew that was eaten by the poverty-ridden citizens living
through this difficult time in Spain.
Dalí's composition manages to express his political outrage. He would later
continue to paint about politics and war in a series of works on Hitler and his
agreement with Lord Chamberlain of Britain. This image also brings to mind Pablo
Picasso's masterwork on a similar topic, Guernica (1937).