Surrealism began in 1924 in Paris as an art movement focused on dreams, nightmares, fantasy and the subconscious. Surrealist works often featured strange juxtapositions of ordinary objects in unusual settings and perspectives to make the ordinary seem extraordinary. Common surrealist images included eyes, ants, playing cards, snakes, human body parts and more. Notable surrealist artists mentioned include Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, James Gleeson, Frida Kahlo, Dorothea Tanning, Dusan Marek and Max Dupain.

1. Surrealism
Where the ordinary becomes
extraordinary

2. Surrealism
• Surrealism Movement was founded in Paris in 1924
• as a movement that relied on dreams, nightmares fantasy, images from the
subconscious.
• Surrealist means above and beyond reality as it is normally seen and
understood.
• Artists were interested in strange things that can happen.
• Humor was a part of the surrealism.
• Works can be a combination of objects and images which are absurd and very
funny, they believed that art did not have to be serious all the time
Subject Matter
• Objects rejected by society
• Objects in strange surroundings
• Unusual perspective/ barren landscapes sky
• Reflections and shadows do not have to be the same size as the objects
casting the shadows
• Effects of gravity
• Melting of objects/transforming/blending
Common Images
• Eyes ants, playing cards, snakes/reptiles, human body parts, skulls, skeleton, fish,
butterflies etc

3. Salvador Dali

4. Salvador Dali
Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man
Oil on Canvas 1943

5. Salvador Dali
Atavistic Vestiges After the Rain
Oil on canvas 1934

6. Salvador Dali
The Architectural Angelus of Millet
Oil on Canvas 1933

7. Salvador Dali
The Last Supper (detail)
Oil on canvas 1955

8. Salvador Dali
Beach Scene with
telephone (detail)
Oil on canvas, 1938

9. Salvador Dali
Lobster telephone 1936
Mixed Media

10. Rene Magritte 1898-1967
The Voice of the Winds
1928

11. Rene Magritte ‘Golconda, 1953

12. Rene Magritte ‘Memory’ 1948

13. Rene Magritte
The Explanation
1954

14. James
Gleeson
•James Gleeson is regarded as the foremost Australian surrealist
painter and poet.
•His career spans from 1938 until the present day
•He was initially influenced by Dali
•As a war artist, he painted and drew scenes of battles, this may
have influenced his ‘warped’ images

15. Structural Emblems of a
Friend 1941
Oil on Canvas board, 46
x 35.6 cm

16. We inhabit the Corrosive Littoral of
Habit, 1940
Oil on Canvas 40.7x51.1cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Gift

17. Coagulations on the
maintenance of
Identity 1942
Oil on Canvas
97.6x77.4cm

18. Frida Kahlo
Mexican Artist
1907-1954
‘the art of Frida Kahlo is a ribbon around a
bomb’ Andre Breton

19. Frida Kahlo
Self portrait
1940
Oil on Masonite
40x31cms

20. Frida Kahlo
Self portrait with braid
1941
Oil on Masonite
51x38.7cms

21. Frida Kahlo
The Broken Column
1944
Oil on Masonite
40x31cms

22. Frida Kahlo

23. Frida Kahlo
Tree of Hope
1946

24. Dorothea Tanning
Eine kleine nachmusik
1946

25. Dusan Marek
1926-1993
Painter/Filmmaker

26. Dusan Marek
Gravitation 1949

27. Max Dupain
Girls Head and Goats Skull
1930