Surrealist More Art
In the wake of World War I’s ravaging of Europe, artists delved into the unconscious mind to confront and grapple with this reality. Poet and critic André Breton, a leader of the Surrealist movement who authored the 1924 Surrealist Manifesto, called this approach “a violent reaction against the impoverishment and sterility of thought processes that resulted from centuries of rationalism.” Surrealist art emerged in the 1920s with dreamlike and uncanny imagery guided by a variety of techniques such as automatic drawing, which can be likened to a stream of consciousness, to channel psychological experiences.
Although Surrealism was a groundbreaking approach for European art, its practitioners were inspired by Indigenous art and ancient mysticism for reenvisioning how sculptures, paintings, prints, performance art and more could respond to the unsettled world around them.
Surrealist artists were also informed by the Dada movement, which originated in 1916 Zurich and embraced absurdity over the logic that had propelled modernity into violence. Some of the Surrealists had witnessed this firsthand, such as Max Ernst, who served in the trenches during World War I, and Salvador Dalí, whose otherworldly paintings and other work responded to the dawning civil war in Spain.
Other key artists associated with the revolutionary art and literary movement included Man Ray, Joan Miró, René Magritte, Yves Tanguy, Frida Kahlo and Meret Oppenheim, all of whom had a distinct perspective on reimagining reality and freeing the unconscious mind from the conventions and restrictions of rational thought. Pablo Picasso showed some of his works in “La Peinture Surréaliste” — the first collective exhibition of Surrealist painting — which opened at Paris’s Galerie Pierre in November of 1925. (Although Magritte is best known as one of the visual Surrealist movement’s most talented practitioners, his famous 1943 painting, The Fifth Season, can be interpreted as a formal break from Surrealism.)
The outbreak of World War II led many in the movement to flee Europe for the Americas, further spreading Surrealism abroad. Generations of modern and contemporary artists were subsequently influenced by the richly symbolic and unearthly imagery of Surrealism, from Joseph Cornell to Arshile Gorky.
Find a collection of original Surrealist paintings, sculptures, prints and multiples and more art on 1stDibs.
1920s Surrealist More Art
Paper
1930s Surrealist More Art
Paper
Early 2000s Surrealist More Art
Copper
1920s Surrealist More Art
Paper
1950s Surrealist More Art
Paper
1980s Surrealist More Art
Offset
1960s Surrealist More Art
Gold, Bronze
1970s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
Early 2000s Surrealist More Art
Porcelain
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Paper, Screen
1970s Surrealist More Art
Woodcut
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Acrylic, Board
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Acrylic
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
1950s Surrealist More Art
Photogravure
1960s Surrealist More Art
Drypoint, Etching, Color
1950s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
1950s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
Early 2000s Surrealist More Art
Paper
1970s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
1970s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Watercolor
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Oil
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
1970s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
1930s Surrealist More Art
Photogravure
Artist Comments
"A flower is small, but it is also a world of its own," says artist Guigen Zha. He paints a surreal image of a flower growing from bud to bloom. A parallel metaphor of human life from birth to death plays out in the scene. Guigen displays a peony, a deer, and a human expressing the interconnection and interdependence of all things in a utopian world.
About the Artist
Words that describe this painting: healing, peony, deer, animal, belief, landscape, floral, poetic, oilpaint, flower, surrealism, figure, nude, surrealism, flora, oil painting, green
One Blossom One World...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
1940s Surrealist More Art
Paper, Photogravure
1950s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Watercolor
Artist Comments
An ostrich glides forward on colorful roller skates, balancing a gramophone, books, and an apple on its back. Headphones rest over its ears, and a carrot dang...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
Artist Comments
A colorful little bird watches over her nest perched on a ledge. The white porcelain trays represent cliffs that are fixtures on any nesting island. The asymm...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Watercolor
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Oil
1990s Surrealist More Art
Copper
1960s Surrealist More Art
Etching
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Acrylic, Board
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Acrylic
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Oil
1930s Surrealist More Art
Photogravure
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Oil
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Oil
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
1960s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph
1950s Surrealist More Art
Lithograph