<p>Giaconda, 1953</p>
<a title="Giaconda" href="http://www.mattesonart.com/Data/Sites/1/magritte/Giaconda%201953.jpg">Giaconda</a>, 1953
<p>Maybe you can guess, but the instant I saw this image, I thought of George Orwell's <em>Coming Up for Air</em>. While Orwell's novel actually came first, this painting shows the mundane life that George, the protagonist, was speaking of. The men in bowler hats could even be insurance salesmen. This image had to be added to show the relationship between art and writing going the other direction. Orwell predicted this painting, in a way.</p>
<p>Here's some more about <a title="Magritte" href="http://www.mattesonart.com/1949-1960-mature-period.aspx">René Magritte</a>, the painter of Giaconda, and one of the most influential surrealists of the 20th Century.</p>
René Magritte
Matteson Art
1953
Menil Collection, Houston, TX
oil on canvas
A Quotation
Surrealism in the <a title="Duchamp quote" href="http://fantasticvisions.net/events/2011/02/17/surrealisme-national-art-centre-tokyo/">words of Duchamp</a>
I have chosen to include the words of Duchamp here because I believe that they reveal a truth about both surrealism and the works that are classified as such. There isn't a book we read in this class that didn't have something to do with the mind, and Duchamp makes surrealism a dream in itself, though it deals with that dream-like state. As a whole, all of these books deal with identity and how it is defined. It is important to have something that connects all of the pieces together as Duchamp's words do here.
Marcel Duchamp
Fantastic Visions
English
Freedom of Love
<a title="Freedom of Love" href="http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/freedom-of-love/">Freedom of Love</a>
This poem by André Breton disects the female body and compares the parts to very non-bodylike things. This made me think of Breton's speaker as someone who objectifies the woman he is with, much like Rochester does to Annette in <em>Wide Sargasso Sea</em>. Rochester objectifies Annette to pieces, but does so so much that he even finds it impossible to refer to her by her own name. He begins calling his objectified wife by the name Bertha, likely because he doesn't know what else to call her. Though Breton's poem is more sexualized than Rhys's novel, the ideas expressed appear to be quite similar. Both deal with the idea of identity and how that identity is related to the body.
André Breton
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/freedom-of-love/
Edouard Rodti, translator
French, translated to English
poem
Lessons of War: <a title="Naming of Parts" href="http://www.solearabiantree.net/namingofparts/namingofparts.html" target="_blank">Naming of Parts</a>
War, specifically World War II, mixed with the feelings of being a young man.
<p>Henry Reed is a poet with whom the Birmingham Surrealists associated. He's best known for the series he wrote <em>Lessons of War</em>, but most specifically for Part 1: "Naming of Parts." "Naming of Parts" is an excellent link between surrealism as an art movement and the topic of war that was so prevelant in Europe during the first half of the 20th century. Although "Naming of Parts" is about WWII, I saw a connection between this poem and Rebecca West's <em>Return of the Soldier</em> because of the routine it implied. The women in West's novel live routine lives while they wait for their soldier to return, just as this soldier learns to use his weapon. </p>
<p>Part of what allows this poem to fit into the idea of surrealism is that it sounds like a villanelle, but that format is actually much stricter than the one that Reed's poem follows. Apart from form, this poem also echos some of the key thematic elements of the surrealist movement.</p>
Henry Reed
http://www.solearabiantree.net/namingofparts/namingofparts.html
This poem can be found in Reed's <em>Collected Poems,</em> which was published most recently in 1991 by Jon Stallworthy,<em> </em>but for the purposes of this project, the publisher is www.solearabiantree.net.
May 2013
web document, audio recording
English
Sheherazade, 1950
<a title="Sheherazade, 1950" href="http://www.mattesonart.com/Data/Sites/1/magritte/Sheherazade%201950.jpg">Sheherazade</a>, 1950
<p>Of the novels we read from the 20th Century in Europe, the most surrealist of them was <em>Wide Sargasso Sea</em> by Jean Rhys. This painting of Magritte's reminded me of the book because of how fragmented an identity can become. First, Annette is a piece of her mother, then a piece of the convent in which she resides, then a piece of her marriage, then a piece of Rochester's English manor. Annette, though telling her story through the words of Rhys, is constantly in fragments of her own identity. She is always missing something that makes her uniquely herself. </p>
<p>Annette's mother was known for her undying beauty, which is also something addressed in Magritte's painting. Just as Annette was reduced to being a piece of something else, so was her mother. Her mother was only able to be viewed as an object, like this painting of Magritte's implies, which makes Annette's identity even mroe fragmented.</p>
René Magritte
http://www.mattesonart.com/Data/Sites/1/magritte/Sheherazade%201950.jpg
Matteson Art
1950
oil on canvas
Surrealist Composition with Invisible Figures
<a title="Surrealist Composition with Invisible Figures" href="http://www.salvador-dali.org/dali/coleccio/en_50obres.php?ID=W0000236">Surrealist Composition with Invisible Figures</a>
Like most other items in this collection, Dali's painting deals with the idea of identity and body. Dali leaves out bodies completely from this composition, which forces us to look at what makes identity that surrounds us. This can be directly related to the idea presented in Woolf's <em>Orlando</em>, since the argument can be made that Orlando's gender is simply a product of the environment surrounding her at the time. While she is male, the environment made her so, and while she is female, the environment also made her so.
Salvador Dali
Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation
Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation
1936
Oil on cardboard
painting
The Surrealist Manifesto
The first <em>Manifesto of Surrealist</em> by Andre Breton
This writen manifesto gave a light definition and goal to the philosophical idea of surrealism.
The manifesto tries to explain the need for surrealism and why it has become (again) a way of thinking.
Andre Breton wanted to give a purpose to the importance of bringing to light superstition and myth because they are as valuable in defining truths as science.
Written by :Andre Breton Translation from: Patrick Waldberg, book titled <em>Surrealism,</em> (New York: McGraw-Hil, 1971), pp. 66-75
<p>University of Alabama</p>
<p>College of Communications and Informations Sciences</p>
University of Alabama
<p> First published in 1924, re-published five years later in 1929. Found online through the University of Alabama</p>
Crystol May, University of Alabama, GSA Library treasures
<a title="University of Alabama" href="http://tcf.ua.edu/">University of Alabama</a>, <a title="GSA Library Treasures" href="http://gsalibrarytreasures.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/surrealist-manifesto/">GSA Library Treasures</a>
htm
original language: French
Translation: English
Manifesto
the Surrealist Cultural Movement
The Wonders of Nature (Les Merveilles de la nature), 1953
The Wonders of Nature (<a title="Wonders of Nature" href="http://moreart4all.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/05-rene-magratte-mca.jpg">Les Merveilles de la nature</a>), 1953
This painting by Magritte, who is one of the most well-known and influential surrealists, deals with body image and identity. As we are connecting novels to higher art forms, this particular piece made me think of <em>Orlando</em> by Virginia Woolf. One cannot actually tell if the fish people are male or female, though it is likely there is one male and one female, but regardless of this, they appear to be in love. <em>Orlando</em> deals with the importance of gender in being a part of the human experience, so these two seemed very linked.
René Magritte
1953
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago: Gifted by Joseph and Jory Shapiro, 1982
Oil on canvas
Un Chien Andalou (Andalusian Dog)
<a title="Un Chien Andalou" href="http://vimeo.com/18540575">Un Chien Andalou</a> (Andalusian Dog)
This is a film written by Salvador Dali, a Catalan surrealist. I'm not going to attempt to explain what is going on in the <a title="IMDB's interpretation" href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020530/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm">film</a>, as surrealism is left open to interpretation intentionally. To continue the theme here, though, this film relates to many of the books we read in this class because of the way it looks at the inner workings of the self. Most specifically, we can put this film next to Jean Rhys's <em>Wide Sargasso Sea</em>. Rhys's project in writing <em>Wide Sargasso Sea</em> was to give voice to the crazy lady in the attic, which meant that we as readers got to watch the slow descent into insanity from inside her mind. However, we are still, by virture of being readers of an interpretation of a person's mind, on the outside. The same can be said for Dali's film. For all we know, Dali was showing a slow descent into insanity by following the inner workings of this man's mind, but we are on the outside, and therefore understand nothing of the sort. This item had to be included in this timeline of surrealism to show that the concept of surrealism did not change throughout the movement, and that the statement surrealists made through visual art can also be seen in novels and other writings.
Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dali
viveo.com
viveo.com
This film was originally released in 1929
film
silent, French
horror, surrealism, art