SURREALISM
Freud & the unconscious
"AS BEAUTIFUL as the chance meeting of an umbrella and a sewing machine upon a dissecting table." Chants de Maldoror (1869), by Comte de Lautréamont (Isidore Ducasse).
SURREALISM, n. Pure psychic automatism by which it is intended to express, either verbally or in writing, the true function of thought. Thought dictated in the absence of all control exerted by reason, and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupations (André Breton, Manifesto of Surrealism, 1924, cited in Ades, Dada and Surrealism, 1974).
The first thing to keep in mind about Surrealism is that its original artform was literary. It is chiefly remembered however through painting and cinema, and in particular the work of Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel. Despite this legacy, Surrealism originates as a manifesto by André Breton, Louis Aragon and Philippe Soupault. Surrealism was launched in 1924 with Manifesto of Surrealism and was updated and refined in the manifesto What is Surrealism? in 1934.
Take a look at the following two paintings. I would like to suggest that there are a number of similarities, as well as obvious differences, that are notable about the works. The first portrait is a typical example of Surrealism. Max Ernst takes one of the key themes of Freudian psychoanalysis, the oedipal personality pathology, and expresses it in a painting. The second painting is the portrayal of the attempted slaying of Isaac by his father Abraham. Both dramas are constructed by a Father and Son dynamic; the oedipal drive destroys the father, and Abraham obeys God's will to slaughter his only son (by Sarah). The exercise here is to describe what you see in each work.