100 Years of Surrealism (1924)
Surrealism is an art movement from the 20th century, from 1924 to 1946 to be precise. A characteristic of this art movement is that it seems as if you are looking at a fantasy or dream world. At first glance, the artworks appear a bit strange. The artist also sometimes tries to mislead you by showing things that are actually impossible. Their goal is to show you unreal things that are not possible in the normal world. Are you a fan of this art movement and have you seen artworks by famous painters in Dutch or Belgian museums?
Surrealism
Surrealism is an art movement in modern art that originated as a literary movement in the early 1920s. Although a peak of Surrealism can be observed between 1925 and 1940 in painting, sculpture, photography, and literature, Surrealism is still present and active.
It is the French writer and essayist André Breton, who in 1924 recorded his views on Surrealism in art, particularly painting and literature, in the Manifesto of Surrealism (French: Manifeste du surréalisme). Regarding the relationship between Surrealism and painting, he published *Le surréalisme et la peinture* in 1928, which was reissued in 1965 with many new additions.
Disappointed in rationalism, which had proven too optimistic due to the horrors of the First World War, and inspired by the ideas of Sigmund FreudSurrealists place the dream state of consciousness, characterized by free associations, at the center.
Features and techniques
Surrealism is a movement of literary origin, defined in André Breton's manifesto of 1924 as: Automatic spontaneity in its purest form, in which one attempts – verbally, through the written word, or in any form whatsoever – to show the way of thinking guided by fantasy, without any controlled reason and detached from moral values.
Usually executed in a hyperrealistic style, the Surrealists compose images in absolutely unexpected, surprising, if not shocking combinations. However, it is equally possible, as the work of Hans Arp proves, for the works to be totally abstract, or, as in the work of Joan Miró, recognizable but certainly not realistic. Surrealists try to give their imagination as much free rein as possible. They paint dream images, for example. Automatic drawing or writing is also an applied technique.
Famous artists
Surrealism is perhaps the most important art movement in Belgium in the 2th century. Do you know the names of the five artists? And what are the names of the five artworks? Railway collectors will surely purchase this sheet, given the Paul Delvaux stamp.
The sheet comes out on August 26th. A magnificent design by Myriam Voz. Pay attention to the text on the sheet margin. Can you recognize the fake and the real perforation? Why can't she design a sheet of stamps for PostNL?
Rene Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte (1898–1967) was a Belgian surrealist painter. The majority of Magritte's oeuvre belongs stylistically to Surrealism, one of the major art movements of the 20th century. Nude women and realistically painted fish appear in many of his works. This is likely a reference to the fact that Magritte found his mother naked in the Sambre after she had committed suicide.
Magritte's work, just like that of Salvador Dalí and Carel Willink, for example, is painted with great fine detail, which emphasizes the realistic effect of representations that cannot exist in reality.
Magritte's most famous work is without any doubt *La Trahison des Images* (1928-29), or “The Treachery of Images,” with the painted text: *Ceci n'est pas une pipe* beneath the very realistic image of a pipe. In this work, René Magritte paints a pipe with the message directly below it: “This here is not a pipe” (*Ceci n'est pas une pipe*). He wants to remind himself and the viewer that this is an oil-painted canvas, in other words, a painting, and not a real pipe. Any reference to a real pipe betrays the fact that a pipe is actually an idea and therefore originates in the mind.
By constantly questioning us and, as it were, misleading us, Magritte forces us to think about art. The titles of Magritte's work can also be viewed in this light. These titles usually have nothing to do with the subject of the painting. Later conceptual artists took this line to an extreme with an installation, a performance, or a happening, reducing the artwork to an idea. This is also a critique of artists who believe they must represent reality as truthfully as possible, such as the hyperrealists later on.
René Magritte believed it is the painter's task to place reality in a different context. His art always raises more questions than it can answer. Witness to this is the painting of a mermaid depicted with a fish head and human legs. Also characteristic is the painting of a very realistically depicted fish that transforms at the tail end into a burning cigar with a swirling plume of smoke (painting “l'Exception” 1963). Magritte's work also testifies to an extremely high level of mastery of the technique of painting with oil on canvas.
Much of Magritte's work shows a metamorphosis, a transformation from one object into another. Or the work is impossible in other respects, for example, the series of houses at night with a clear sky in daylight above them. Or a moon hanging in front of the leaves of a tree. Owls or other birds emerging from the ground like plants.
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