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.
Artist Comments
Artist Miranda Gamel depicts an ethereal being with a glowing crown and wings. Star nebulas and light beams surround her in lustrous prismatic hues. The nude fi...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
Artist Comments
Artist Miranda Gamel depicts a woman rising from fire and ashes. The hazy atmosphere expands in a subtly abstract approach. The subject wears a floating gold gl...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Acrylic
Artist Comments
Inspired by the classical painting, The Birth of Venus, artist Miranda Gamel shows a surrealist portrayal. The subject stands beautifully with long wavy hair and glistening eyes under a turquoise moon...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
Artist Comments
Artist Miranda Gamel shares a dreamy portrait of a woman with a neon pink crown surrounded by glowing butterflies. Miranda portrays the subject with illuminated...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
2010s Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Acrylic
Artist Comments
Part of her series about the divinatory meanings of the swords tarot cards, artist Rachel Srinivasan paints a minotaur with blades and a caduceus. She feature...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
Artist Comments
Artist Guigen Zha presents elements of Chinese cultural relics set upon a surrealist beach. A Tang Sancai, a type of pottery from the Tang Dynasty, sits prominently with its gilded handles. Together on the steps are an embroidered shoe worn by women and a pomegranate flower in full bloom. He paints a snail walking into a mural depicting cultural history. "The piece presents a reminder of the past and how time flies," says Guigen.
About the Artist
Words that describe this painting: healing, landscape, seascape, floral, poetic, cultural relics, surrealism, Dali...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
Artist Comments
Artist Guigen Zha paints red lotus flowers under the shining sun. Square blocks of gradient color fill the fragmented scene. He paints...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
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
Artist Comments
Artist Diane Flick paints a surrealist scene of home appliances descending the sky in parachutes. The first in her playful Anthromorphic Vintage Appliance series. "They love, they ponder, they tire, they argue, they weave intricate and colorful tapestries, and they skydive," narrates Diane. She depicts a vivid, calm, and symmetrically centered visual style drawing influence from Wes Anderson.
About the Artist
Diane Flick is a Bay Area artist who paints quirky portraits of robots with a playful color palette and masterful realism. Each of Diane’s robots expresses its own humanlike and idiosyncratic personality. From an early age, she had a fascination with inanimate objects and often imagined what they would be like with human characteristics. Her portfolio explores the human experience through non-human subjects.
Words that describe this painting: parachuting, parachute, refrigerator, phone, telephone, television, vintage, appliances, Wes Anderson, sky, calm, serene, surrealism, silly, Eric Joyner...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
Artist Comments
“Curiouser and curiouser,†quotes artist Diane Flick. In her playful and whimsical style, Diane pictures a blender with the limbs of a human and the crown of an animal. The anthropomorphic creature embodies the same comfort from its heart and breathes deeply in the warm, rhythmic, and glorious world. It perches on a pillow situated on a pine tree growing sideways from the dark cerulean sky.
About the Artist
Diane Flick is a Bay Area artist who paints quirky portraits of robots with a playful color palette and masterful realism. Each of Diane’s robots expresses its own humanlike and idiosyncratic personality. From an early age, she had a fascination with inanimate objects and often imagined what they would be like with human characteristics. Her portfolio explores the human experience through non-human subjects.
Words that describe this painting: blender, vintage, appliance, meditate, meditating, peace, calm, serene, serenity, sky, redwood, tree, pillow, comfortable, comfort, Eric Joyner...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
Artist Comments
Rachel Srinivasan manifests a representation of a tarot card. She paints a robust white bison in the center of five silver swords, standing on a pentagram in ...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
Artist Comments
"This painting celebrates the joy and the art of the frolic, the fanciful, and the free!" says artist Diane Flick. Loosely inspired by Mary Poppins with a nod to her in the title, Diane explores her playful imagination by drawing an expansive landscape with random and happy imagery conceived in pure delight. Having just given birth to her second child when beginning this piece, Diane spent that summer enjoying the new addition to her family, rolling down imaginary hills with childlike enthusiasm, wrapping herself in the sweetness of new motherhood again, and painting.
About the Artist
Diane Flick is a Bay Area artist who paints quirky portraits of robots with a playful color palette and masterful realism. Each of Diane’s robots expresses its own humanlike and idiosyncratic personality. From an early age, she had a fascination with inanimate objects and often imagined what they would be like with human characteristics. Her portfolio explores the human experience through non-human subjects.
Words that describe this painting: surrealism, pop surrealism, robot, balloons, chair, scarf, ostrich, Eric Joyner...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Ink, Watercolor, Archival Paper, Graphite
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Ink, Watercolor, Archival Paper, Graphite
2010s Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Acrylic
Artist Comments
Part of artist Rachel Srinivasan's Tarot series. In this piece, she paints an interpretation of the card Four of Swords, showing four humanoid figures with bu...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Acrylic
Artist Comments
"In this painting, a shift change is captured at the Alchemic Kingdom," says artist Jesse Aldana. "A multi-faceted amusement park whose grand hotel rises airily...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Glaze, Ceramic
Artist Comments
"This painting is a part of both my Tarot series and my Power Bison series," shares artist Rachel Srinivasan. "In tarot, the two of swords is about decisions,...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Ceramic, Acrylic
Artist Comments
"This painting is inspired by the tarot card called the 'Ace of Swords'," states artist Rachel Srinivasan. A veiled woman peeks behind a tall sword as she is ...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Paper
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Watercolor
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Canvas, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Paper
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Etching, Monoprint
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Etching, Monoprint
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Etching, Monoprint
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Etching, Monoprint
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Watercolor
Artist Comments
"Triggered is a work that was slowly developed due to multiple influences changing the meaning of the painting," explains artist Asha Hanna. "The original ins...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Acrylic
Artist Comments
A surreal portrait of a jaguar overlaid with a glowing peony. "She moves unapologetically through space, through water, through the land," says artist Miranda...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Watercolor
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Watercolor
Artist Comments
Part of a series of biomorphic portraits mixing elements of realism and fantasy, and surrealism and folk art. Artist Diana Rosa says she combined 50 percent man with 50 percent crocodile, playing up the patterns and shapes reminiscent of nature and wild organisms.
About the Artist
Lighthearted and jovial by nature, Diana’s contemporary paintings depict people in varied scenarios of indulgence. Whether it is a quiet moment alone in the woods, or a tantalizing rendezvous in the tub, Diana creates private moments in carefree or comedic ways. Her narratives often include humorous sexual tension between unlikely bedfellows, enough to elicit a chuckle from even the most stoic art lover. “I create a visual dialogue where everything is possible and magic is the queen,” says Diana. “[There is] a subtle injection of ambiguity that blurs the gap between the ordinary and the fantastic. The background of this sub-world appears to be transformed into an innocent children’s fantasy that almost looks like a dream.”
Words that describe this painting: head, face, animal, human, portrait, mask, crocodile, man, folk, primitive, outsider, naive, Picasso, animals, surrealism, representational, primitive, acrylic painting, green
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Watercolor
Artist Comments
This painting is all about roots;both going back to my artistic roots, and learning that in order for something to grow, one must take care of the roots. Crafte...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Paper, Screen
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Watercolor, Paper, Ink, Mixed Media
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Watercolor
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Watercolor
Artist Comments
On this piece I painted a little Dutch ceramic windmill souvenir with a small Delft blue windmill drawing. In the background there's another windmill scene: a copy of Jacob Van Ruisdael...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
2010s Surrealist More Art
Mixed Media, Magazine Paper
Artist Comments
The bison and the beetle have a prehistoric elegance about them that I thought would compliment each other perfectly. Symbolically, both represent life and mortality, which has been on my mind lately. To Native Americans, bison are symbolic of sacred life and abundance. And in ancient greek mythology the beetle became revered as a symbol of rebirth and immortality -- its daily journey across the sky became an allegory of human life. The Wallpaper collection is a juxtaposition of masculine meets feminine. I wanted to create a unique series that stands apart from traditional nature paintings, where the wild and somewhat prehistoric aspects of my animals featured contrast against their delicate backdrops. In addition to this, many of my paintings are created with a little bit of underlying symbolism usually sparked from a world event or life moment that I am experiencing. I concentrate on this theme as a therapeutic mantra throughout the creation of the painting. For each painting, different techniques and layers of design are implemented when creating the wall paper effect. To keep the patterns consistent I create a stencil to outline the shapes of my hummingbirds, bugs and fish, and then I hand paint each shape individually. In the areas where I wanted a little more chaos, I would forgo the stencil and eyeball each design. My animals are always painted first, and then I layout the design around them.
About the Artist
Australian-born Alana Clumeck...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Acrylic
2010s Surrealist More Art
Mixed Media
Artist Comments
Using art to work through the loss of my father, this piece explores how grief causes otherwise forgotten objects to take on new meaning. My dad and I were es...
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist More Art
Oil
2010s Surrealist More Art
Mixed Media
2010s Surrealist More Art
Mixed Media
2010s Surrealist More Art
Mixed Media
2010s Surrealist More Art
Mixed Media
