<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
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
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
Androgyny, Interview with Meret Oppenheim
An interview with surrealist Meret Oppenheim
The author and Oppenheim discuss her views on the role of dreams and women in the Surrealist movement.
Robert J. Belton
Dada/Surrealism
No. 18 Surrealism and Women
The University of Iowa
1990
English
Journal
Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate. One Second before Awakening
By Salvador Dali
Example of typical portrayals of idealized women by male surrealists.
Salvador Dali
<a title="Dali Painting" href="http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/salvador-dali/dream-caused-by-the-flight-of-a-bee-around-a-pomegranate-one-second-before-awakening" target="_blank">Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid, Spain</a>
1944
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
<a title="Surrealisme et Sexualite" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61zKz0yBZzL._SL500_SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" target="_blank">Surréalisme et Sexualité</a> by Xavière Gauthier
A feminist critique of the mystification of women by the surrealist movement.
Influenced by SImone de Beauvoir, Gauthier analyses how the female body is used as a muse and as an erotic image in surrealist art.
Xavière Gauthier
Can be found in the <a title="Gauthier in Encore" href="http://encore.unco.edu/iii/encore/search/C__SSurr%C3%A9alisme%20et%20sexualit%C3%A9__Orightresult__U1?lang=eng&suite=cobalt" target="_blank">UNC library</a>!
Gallimard
1971
French