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Surrealist Animal Paintings

SURREALIST STYLE

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.

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Style: Surrealist
Nature Girl, colorful surrealist bird woman painting
Located in Brooklyn, NY
colorful surrealist image of bird woman *ABOUT Stephen Basso Stephen Basso's highly original pastels and oil paintings are romantic, yet thought provoki...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstraction (rhinoceros, rhino)-mystical, esoteric, futuristic art
By Airo
Located in Fort Lee, NJ
The style of the artist Airo is called "retrofuturism" or "Russian cosmism." This is a popular and growing trend among artists and collectors around the world. He connects the past with the future in the present. The artist uses various types of techniques to create his own special expression. Sergei Airo was born in 1960 in the city of Novorossiysk (Krasnodar region) in the artist's family. In 1991, Sergei showed interest in the so-called "primitivism". His attention is drawn to the works and images of mythical life. After that the artist was concentrated on the study of medieval masters. Mainly exploring the religious direction and influence of Flemish medieval artists. In 1996, Sergei Airo presents a series of works at the Airspace Design exhibition in Air France. He is a permanent member of the Union of Artists, the Association of New Artists and the Society of Fine Arts, on the personal recommendation of Zurab Tsereteli...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Find (Gulliver's Travels animal claws vintage oil painting woman man couple fur)
Located in Quebec, Quebec
In "Find", Rudolf expresses the idea that; similarly to the satirical novel "Gulliver's Travels", humans are confronted with an inexplicable encounter and do not know how to react to...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Magic (animal figurative oil painting surrealist deer man reindeer scenery)
Located in Quebec, Quebec
A magical encounter between man and animal, in this case, a deer, produces energy in the form of a strong light. It is quite puzzling how it comes to this meeting, you can decide for...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Large Earth Tonal Surrealist Animal Painting
Located in Houston, TX
Surrealist animal painting with frog-like creatures and a stork taking up the majority of the composition. The work is mainly earth tones with hints of grays. The work is signed by t...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Cooped Up, colorful painting of cats and birds in birdcage
Located in Brooklyn, NY
colorful surrealist narrative of cats *ABOUT Stephen Basso Stephen Basso's highly original pastels and oil paintings are romantic, yet thought provoking fantasies. His whimsical...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Fate Challenge I (lady climber wildcat brown earth tones yellow ochre mauve
Located in Quebec, Quebec
In "Fate challenge II“ a mountaineer is eagerly climbing a steep rock ledge because she has seen something from a distance that she could not explain and is planning to find out. Alt...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Hungry Dancer
Located in Kansas City, MO
Due to the current situation related to the Novel Coronavirus pandemic, our gallery will donate 10% of our commission from this sale to the Kansas City Artists Coalition, which has been supporting local Kansas City Artists for the past 40 years. The Kansas City Artists Coalition (KCAC), is a non-profit, artist-centered, artist-run alternative space, supporting artists at every level in their career through exhibitions, continuing education and artist studios. Artist: Joseph Broghammer Title: “The Hungry Dancer” Materials : Chalk pastel and pencil on Arches Paper Date : 2017 Dimensions : 19 x 22 in. Omaha based artist Joseph Broghammer is as much of a storyteller as he is an artist. His one-of-a-kind pastel drawings in “Animals” are chronicles of his life. The creatures Broghammer creates are vehicles to uncover the varying characteristics of the artist’s personal identity. Hence, Broghammer’s “Animals” translates as a flowing stream of consciousness. The different birds and livestock staring back at the viewer are ornamented with iconographic symbols – small surprises along the way. These trinkets are keys to understanding the stories Broghammer is sharing. Broghammer began mastering his “dry painting” technique during his B.F.A. in Visual Art at the University of South Dakota. He graduated in 1986 and a year later went on to study his M.F.A. at the University of Wisconsin. In 2009, he studied at Creative Capital in Omaha, Nebraska. As storytellers often do, Broghammer later went on to become an educator himself, teaching at WhyArts? and becoming an Artist Assistant at Vera Mercer...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Chalk, Pastel, Archival Paper, Pencil, Color Pencil

Trainer II-XXI Century Contemporary Surrealist Acrylic Painting Emerging Artist
Located in Warsaw, PL
Daiva Kairevičiūtė graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts in 1996. She is a prized Lithuanian artist. She became a member of the Union des ...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Meeting of the Minds
Located in Napa, CA
Framed Oil on Canvas Largely self-taught, Linda Ridd Herzog’s paintings boast unbelievably detailed animals and objects in fantastical, surreal scenes. Growing up in Utah, Herzog f...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Wisdom Trumps Violence - Surreal Oil Painting with a Leopard, an Owl, and a Man
Located in Chicago, IL
Toying (e.g., rider on toy horse) with violent threats is not wise. The sounds (e.g., horn) of violence (e.g., spear and leopard) will never overtake wisdom (e.g., owl and pearl). This masterfully painted surrealist artwork draws in the viewer with its extraordinary detail. The artwork is framed. Christopher A. Klein Wisdom Trumps...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Investigation (bat fox bat oil painting surrealism figurative animal vintage)
Located in Quebec, Quebec
In "Investigation I", banal, everyday things meet in this painting to create an unusual, strange, absurd and ironical situation derived by the disproportional scale size of things. ...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Diane in the Purr" Oil painting
Located in Denver, CO
Nathan Durfee's "Diane in the Purr" is an oil painting that depicts Diane, a girl with a cat nose and whiskers drawn on her face, surrounded by stuffed animals. Artist bio: Natha...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Ethan in the Purr" Oil painting
Located in Denver, CO
Nathan Durfee's "Ethan in the Purr" is an oil painting that depicts Ethan, a boy with a cat nose and whiskers drawn on his face, surrounded by stuffed animals. Artist bio: Nathan...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Phenomenon (surrealism oil painting rooster chicken head farm animal red)
Located in Quebec, Quebec
Absurd scenery in the middle of nowhere: head of a chicken, seemingly alive ... and an elderly man ... do they belong together, are they probably old...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Red Surreal English Bulldog
By Marianne Green
Located in Houston, TX
Surreal painting of an English bulldog in a Victorian wig and collar against a red background by local Houston artist Marianne Green in 1996.
Category

1990s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Totemic Arhat - Surreal Buddhist Figure of Enlightenment, Acrylic on Panel
Located in Chicago, IL
Oliver Hazard Benson Totemic Arhat acrylic on panel 9h x 7w in 22.86h x 17.78w cm OB0111 Oliver Hazard’s paintings are produced directly from his imagination and deals with a mixtur...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Panel, Acrylic

"The Minotaur" Surrealist Figurative Abstract Painting
Located in Houston, TX
Surrealist painting of the famous mythical creature "The Minotaur" by artist Gil Bruvel. Framed in a thick golden frame. Artist Biography: Born in Sydney, Australia, in 1959, Gil B...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Surrealist Mythical Creature's Head
Located in Houston, TX
Surrealist mythical creature of a bird like figure. Painted in red, gold, and other colors. The painting is not framed but is painted in a nice whit...
Category

20th Century Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

The Edge of a Dream
Located in San Francisco, CA

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...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Stranger (dog soldier cop surrealist crime scene oil painting yellow tape)
Located in Quebec, Quebec
Absurd scenery in the middle of nowhere: a case for the special forces, inexplicable and uncanny has emerged and must therefore be "arrested"... key...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Great Bird
Located in Miami, FL
Frederick Haucke creates his own brand of surrealism in the 1941 stunner that was with the famous Perls gallery. The painting is signed lower right Signed and dated verso Verso with Perls Gallery, New York label. work is in original framed Provenance: Millicent Rogers...
Category

1940s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Phenomenon II (oil painting surrealist cat paws men vintage clothing nostalgia)
Located in Quebec, Quebec
People encounter a domestic animal that is commonplace and familiar, but the disproportionate scale creates fascination, fright and this perspective renders the human speechless. Similar to the satirical novel "Gulliver's Travels", people are confronted with an inexplicable encounter and do not know how to react to it. Is the situation perplexing because a dog is huge, just taking a nap and does not notice the people around it, or are humans too tiny and do not recognize their "absurd" existence? keywords; surrealism, animals, cat, oil painting, earth tones, figurative painting, strangeness, contemporary surrealistic, unsettling, contemporary figurative painting, dreams, symbolic composition, cat paw
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Phenomenon (cat eyes head mystery men vintage nostalgia figurative scene)
Located in Quebec, Quebec
Absurd scenery in the middle of nowhere: a section of a giant cat's head suddenly appears out of nowhere, an event that lets seemingly random passing...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Morning Vine
Located in New York, NY
Morning Vine, 2017, oil on traditional gesso primed canvas mounted on wood panel with incised line drawing, 54 x 40 inches Morning Vine is painted on a traditional gesso primed surf...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Gesso, Canvas, Wood, Oil

Swan by starlight
Located in London, GB
From glorious observations of the everyday to the surreal, Julie Fleming-Williams’ work is as eclectic as it is engaging. Julie has exhibited at the Royal Academy and her paintings h...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

Heli Hatchlings, Surreal Oil Painting - Giant Chameleons Crab Apples Helicopter
Located in Chicago, IL
The smiling figures in the helicopter, hatching from a frozen crab-apple, have false hopes that they are on a fun adventure, unaware of the imminent danger- they are about the chameleon’s prey. Fortune can turn on a dime. Such is the subject of Christopher Klein...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Spirit of 76
By Martha Hamlin Visser't Hooft
Located in Buffalo, NY
A whimsical gouache painting by American female surrealist Martha Visser't Hooft depicting a butterfly in a patriotic color scheme. Martha Visser't Hooft was born in Buffalo in 19...
Category

1970s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Gouache

On Road
Located in Quebec, Quebec
As in the painting entitled "Arrived", the thematic content revolves around the eternal search of man for the goal, for the light in his life. Often alone on the road, encounters gi...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Goldfish by starlight II
Located in London, GB
From glorious observations of the everyday to the surreal, Julie Fleming-Williams’ work is as eclectic as it is engaging. Julie has exhibited at the Royal Academy and her paintings h...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Red admiral by starlight
Located in London, GB
From glorious observations of the everyday to the surreal, Julie Fleming-Williams’ work is as eclectic as it is engaging. Julie has exhibited at the Royal Academy and her paintings h...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mackerel sky
Located in London, GB
From glorious observations of the everyday to the surreal, Julie Fleming-Williams’ work is as eclectic as it is engaging. Julie has exhibited at the Royal Academy and her paintings h...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

Goldfish by starlight III
Located in London, GB
From glorious observations of the everyday to the surreal, Julie Fleming-Williams’ work is as eclectic as it is engaging. Julie has exhibited at the Royal Academy and her paintings h...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

Goldfish by starlight
Located in London, GB
From glorious observations of the everyday to the surreal, Julie Fleming-Williams’ work is as eclectic as it is engaging. Julie has exhibited at the Royal Academy and her paintings h...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"The Burden" Contemporary Surrealist watercolor (raven with books and chickadee)
Located in New York, NY
30"x22' signed on reverse. In this highly detailed contemporary surrealist style watercolor painting by New York artist, Thomas Broadbent a black raven holds a stack of hardbound bo...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Watercolor

Goldie’s Dream
By Gregory Gillespie
Located in Concord, MA
GREGORY GILLESPIE (1936-2000) Goldie’s Dream, 1999 Oil on panel 20 1/8 x 19 5/8 inches Signed verso: Greg Gillespie Original frame PROVENANCE Forum Gallery, New York, New York (label verso) Nielson Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts (label verso) EXHIBITED Forum Gallery, New York, Gregory Gillespie: New Works, December 2 - 31, 1999 Gregory Gillespie, an artist whose probing, urgent, often bizarre paintings occupied a singular place in the history of late-20th-century representational art committed suicide in 2000 at the age of sixty-four. His art was known for an obsessive attention to realistic detail, but the term realist fit only a narrow swath of his sensibility. He once told an interviewer that he was seeking a reality ''beyond our sense,'' and he pursued it with a variety of artistic styles, techniques and references. He mixed his realism with Expressionist distortion and Surrealistic juxtaposition, just as he supplemented his meticulously applied oil paint with roiling brushwork, photomontage, collage, assemblage, thickly built-up surfaces and, recently, photocopied images. He also found inspiration in several centuries of European painters, including Balthus, Bacon, Beckmann, Bosch, Breugel, Van Eyck, Masaccio and Crivelli. He drew from, and frequently depicted motifs from, Indian sculpture, Tibetan mandalas...
Category

1990s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Happier than Ever-original abstract wildlife-interior painting-contemporary Art
Located in London, Chelsea
"Happier than Ever" by Nathan Neven is a jubilant masterpiece that invites viewers into a world where two ostriches roam a vibrant interior, accompanied by an open window offering a ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Floating Books and Butterflies - 2023 Surrealist still life and skyscape
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
Another masterful books and butterflies painting from realist painter Steven J. Levin. Framed Dimensions: 45 x 50.5 inches Artist Bio Steven J. Levin - (b. 1964) is a young, classi...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Love Knot War
Located in Napa, CA
Largely self-taught, Linda Ridd Herzog’s paintings boast unbelievably detailed animals and objects in fantastical, surreal scenes. Growing up in Utah, Herzog found herself so inspire...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Sexy Cat - Nude Unicorn Cat Woman - Chat Surrealiste
Located in Miami, FL
Leonor Fini creates a hybrid cat-woman-unicorn that is sexy and alluring. Signed lower right. Gouache and pen and ink on paper on heavy textured paper. The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Richard Overstreet...
Category

1940s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink, Gouache, Pen

"Reflected Worlds" Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Robin Hextrum's "Reflected Worlds" is an original, handmade oil painting that features an inverted landscape merging with a waterfall in this surrealist take on landscape painting. ...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Le Paradis - Paradise, Topical Verdant Fantasy Landscape with Flamingos Egrets
By Henri-Robert Bresil
Located in Miami, FL
Paradise was found and it's in the mind's eye of Haitian painter Henri-Robert Bresil. His stylized renditions of a verdant world populated by birds of Paradise... Pink Flamingos and...
Category

1990s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

ROBERT BOUILLE (1926-2021) LARGE FRENCH MYTHOLOGICAL OIL - PEGASUS & ATHENA
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: Robert Bouille (French 1926-2021), signed, stamped verso This artist of Var origin studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Not Quite the Winner
Located in Kansas City, MO
Joseph Broghammer Not Quite the Winner Oil on Canvas Year: 2020 Size: 36 x 36 in Signed by hand COA provided ------------------------------------- Each...
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract 19th Century Kundalini Yantra Spiritual Hindu Tantra Painting
Located in Houston, TX
Small 19th Century Tantra Art displayed in a clear acrylic case. Gouache painting of an orange and yellow uncoiled snake (kundalini) rising from a body of w...
Category

19th Century Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Modern Wilderness
Located in Saint Louis, MO
Modern Wilderness, 2011 Acrylic on canvas 48 x 36 inches (121.9 x 91.4 cm)
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

His Private Island
Located in Saint Louis, MO
His Private Island Acrylic on canvas 60 x 54 inches (152.4 x 137.2 cm)
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Pulling Away
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Acrylic on canvas.
Category

2010s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Malabarista Haciendo su Acto Sobre un Helado de Fresa
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Alejandro Colunga, Mexican (1948 - ) Title: Malabarista Haciendo su Acto Sobre un Helado de Fresa Year: 1975 Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, signed l.r. Size: 48 in. x 63 in....
Category

1970s Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Bird Da
Located in Dallas, TX
In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez writes of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined painti...
Category

Late 20th Century Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Surrealist animal paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Surrealist animal paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add animal paintings created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, green, orange, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Nathan Neven, Rudolf Kosow, Linda Ridd Herzog, and Isabel Rock. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Oil Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Surrealist animal paintings, so small editions measuring 2.76 inches across are also available. Prices for animal paintings made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $190 and tops out at $50,000, while the average work sells for $2,313.

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