Surrealism: Political or Religious?

Surrealism was an offshoot of Dadaism. According to our text it "incorporated the improvisational nature of its predecessor into its exploration of the ways to express in art the world of dreams and the unconscious" (Kleiner and Mamiya). In essence it did not reject reality, but added another dimension to it. The subconscious was thought of as expressing the inner thoughts, ideas, fears and fantasies of the heart and the Surrealist movement depicted these inner workings.

Each Surreal artist appeared to be moved in a different direction with his or her Surreal works. You don't really see very similar pieces amongst the Surrealists of the time. The pieces I've viewed could be fantastical, with beauty and freedom only found in the imagination or they could be nightmarish, depicting private monsters and demons that are personal to the artist and his or her imagination. I think Surrealism could be classified as both religious and political but is mostly based on the inner beliefs and observations of the artist themselves.

For example, Salvador Dali's The Last Supper seen here: http://jessicakirstenmartin.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/dalilast-supper-2.jpg is of the famous "last supper" shared between Jesus and his disciples before Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot. The colors and peace of this particular piece are rare among Dali works. This tells me that his religious beliefs calmed him and made him feel safe and comfortable. Other works of his (shown below) are more disturbing and lack the peace this painting emits.

Dali had some very distorted works showing his own personal turmoil that boiled beneath the surface. His works contained a lot of nightmarish creatures as they are formed somewhere between man and beast. Many of his works also contain clocks as if he had a fear of time or time lost. One example of his strange artwork is seen here: http://www.fotos.org/galeria/data/520/3Salvador-Dali-The-Enigma-Of-William-Tell.jpg and is called The Enigma of William Tell. This disturbing image is of a man who appears to have a tail that needs to be propped up and an arm that appears to be a blade. There is the deformed clock on the steps that this William is kneeling before. I could not even attempt to decipher this painting, but the level of intensity is overwhelming.Works Cited

Kleiner, Fred S. and Christin J. Mamiya. Gardner's Art Through The Ages: A Concise History of Western Art. Ed. Sharon Adams Poore. Belmont: Thomson Learning Inc., 2008.