SURREALISM AND THE SURREALISTS

Surrealism was a literary and artistic movement founded by the French Doctor and poet Andre Breton. Breton published his Surrealist Manifesto in Paris in 1924 and went on to lead the Surrealist Movement. The Surrealist Movement itself has its routs in the Dada Movement which came immediately before it.

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The Dada Movement was an artistic/political movement made up of many artists and war resisters (WW1). Its members despised bourgeois values and believed that the horrors of the First World War were a direct result of those values. The leader of the Dada Movement was Tristan Tzara. Tzara believed that a society that creates the monstrosity of war does not deserve art. He set about trying to create an anti-art. His intention was to offend the established values of the bourgeoisie and rock the status quo. Unfortunately for Tzara this backfired when the bourgeoisie readily embraced the new form of art, believing it not to be a challenge to them directly, but to the old form of art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Between December 1924 and December 1929 twelve issues of La Revolution Surrealiste were published. In 1929 Breton also published his second manifesto. Breton used his second manifesto as a justification to expel certain artists from the movement who were also members of the stalinist lead communist party (Breton had been a Trotsky supporter).

 

Tristam Tzara

 

Six more copies of La Revolution Surrealiste were published between July 1930 and May 1933. No more copies were published after this period. Breton published one more manifesto in 1934 and after this the movement gradually declined.

 

 

Andre Breton

 

The Dada Movement eventually split into mini groups, out of which formed a single smaller group which was to became the afformentioned Surrealist Movement led by Andre Breton. The Centrale Surrealist was established and became the groups headquarters. It published its first review La Revolution Surrealiste on the 1st December 1924. Breton published his first surrealist manifesto in the same year and the Surrealist Movement was born.

 

 

After the Second World War, interest in surrealism declined in intelectual circles and it has never since gained the same notoriety. It has almost become a cliche. However there are still modern surrealist artists around, and there is some evidence that it may be making a comeback.

 

 

 

 

 

After 1933 Breton travelled to many countries including Great Britain, America, and Japan where he lectured, gave interviews, and founded new surrealist groups. Surrealism caught on in The United States and particularly in New York where a major exibition had taken place previously in 1932.