Surrealist Photography
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.
Style: Surrealist
Color: Blue
“La Piscine” Photography 24" x 36" inch Edition of 7 by Brian Ziff
By Brian Ziff
Located in Culver City, CA
“La Piscine” Photography 24" x 36" inch Edition of 7 by Brian Ziff
Giclee (Archival Ink) Print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag
From "Park Drive" series
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Rag Paper, Giclée
“Inside Out 2” (FRAMED) Photography 24" x 36" inch Edition of 7 by Brian Ziff
By Brian Ziff
Located in Culver City, CA
“Inside Out 2” (FRAMED) Photography 24" x 36" inch Edition of 7 by Brian Ziff
Giclee (Archival Ink) Print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag
American Dreams -...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Rag Paper, Giclée
“Walkie Talkie” Photography 24" x 36" inch Edition of 7 by Brian Ziff
By Brian Ziff
Located in Culver City, CA
“Walkie Talkie” Photography 24" x 36" inch Edition of 7 by Brian Ziff
Giclee (Archival Ink) Print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag
From "Park Drive" series
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Rag Paper, Giclée
“Permafrost” Photography 24" x 24" inch Edition of 24 by Brian Ziff
By Brian Ziff
Located in Culver City, CA
“Permafrost” Photography 24" x 24" inch Edition of 24 by Brian Ziff
Giclee (Archival Ink) Print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag
From "Rite of Spring" series
In this melancholy series...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Rag Paper, Giclée
1950s Girly Pin-Up Hangs out on Miami Beach in the 1970s
By Robert Funk
Located in Miami, FL
Besides being a pioneering staged photograph, the composition is unique as well. A five-inch cutout appears to be monumental. The subject fills the pictorial space from the bottom to the top. It dominates the vast beachscape and dwarfs the life-size figures to the lower right. By photographing a reproduction of a person on paper, Funk pushes the boundaries of portraiture in 1977. Robert Funk is a pioneer of Staged Photography. The work is signed, numbered 3/15, dated, and titled lr. printed later, unframed, Printed on Hahnemühle Fine Art paper
Robert Funk is a pioneer of toy, doll, miniature, plastic thingies and staged photography. He also photographs his own paintings. Most of his work is done on location. He does not use photoshop to strip in images. He doesn’t take photographs he creates photographs and has works dating from 1973. He was widely published in the 1970's and early 1980's. As an undergrad in painting, he studied with first-generation abstract expressionist Robert Richenburg...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Nightscape
By JeeYoung Lee
Located in VALLAURIS, FR
"This work is a collaborative piece I produced with a traditional fan-making master. Each folding fan was carefully crafted, colored and arranged to complete the scene. Using the traditional motif of the fan, I tried to reinterpret the meaning of true-view landscape painting, through which painters of the Joseon Dynasty sought not to just describe the look of nature but to portray the essence of nature itself. Koreans traditionally painted landscapes onto fans and I, reversely, use the fans themselves to build a landscape, thus juxtaposing the relationship of fans and landscape.
The woods made with paper fans overlapping like fish scales suggest a self-portrait of a gloomy psychology as well as an expression of various complex emotions such as inner fear and anguish that restrain me. Depicting a very fundamental human reverence and fear toward the sublime, dark, and ever changing nature of the night forests...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Flatiron Building New York's First Skyscraper in Heroic Depiction, Architecture
Located in Miami, FL
The Flatiron is New York's Architectural masterpiece and is depicted in this dramatic photograph as a towering presence as it's rendered in hard light against a surreal sky. Signed ...
Category
Early 2000s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Golden Gate Bridge with Sailboats and Clouds, Blue Sky, Fine Art Photography
Located in Miami, FL
Signed dated and numbered 2/15 lower right recto, other sizes available, unframed and printed later. This work is printed on fine art Hahnemuhle paper.
Mitchell Funk is a pioneer ...
Category
Early 2000s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Paper, Inkjet, Archival Pigment
Panic Room
By JeeYoung Lee
Located in VALLAURIS, FR
"The patterns in this piece were derived from the places of childhood play and the memories of me hiding myself inside a closet as a place of escape. The piece also involves a series of occurrences that happened in childhood relationships. To imply the state of emotional chaos, Op art was employed in tactfully expressing the messiness of a room; and by turning mere boudoir items, or sewing tools into ones that seem aggressive and disquieting, I tried to evoke the fear that a child has when facing changes to the world they are familiar with. It also tells that unforeseen difficulties may lie in wait nearby."
_JeeYoung Lee...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Surreal Blue Landscape - Early Sci-fi Photography
Located in Miami, FL
This image from the imagination of Mitchell Funk was the cover photograph for Popular Photography Magazine, May 1978, It is signed and numbered on lower right, as well as titled ...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Archival Pigment
Surreal Blue Landscape
Located in Miami, FL
This image from the imagination of Mitchell Funk was the cover photograph for Popular Photography Magazine, May 1978, It is signed and dated on lower right, numbered on verso, 2/1...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Path in Central Park. Negative Color
Located in Miami, FL
Mitchell Funk is a pioneer of more the 10 different styles of Color Photography.
This very early experimentation with negative color combined with colored filters yields a romantica...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Dreamy Blue Flowers with Pulsating Pink Patches
By Robert Funk
Located in Miami, FL
Signed, dated, numbered lower right, recto 2/15, unframed, other sizes available. Printed on Hahnemühle Fine Art paper
Robert Funk was widely published in the 1970's and 1980's. H...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Inkjet
The Dance of Pink Lights on a New York City Snowy Day
Located in Miami, FL
Mitchell Funk's hand held pre-dawn New York street scene evokes a simultaneous state of beauty of unexpectedness. This is a straight shot. He used a Nikon D5 and 400mm while he was w...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Dreamy Bronze Statue in Central with onlookers
Located in Miami, FL
Signed, dated, numbered lower right, recto 4/15, unframed, other sizes available, printed later, Printed on Hahnemühle Fine Art paper
It's an in-camera multiple exposures of two figures on a Central Park bench...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper, Inkjet
New York Skyline from New Jersey
Located in Miami, FL
Dreamy and surreal midtown Manhattan with dramatic clouds bathed in grey blue light,
signed and dated on lower right, numbered on verso 3/15, unframed, other size available
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Film
United Nations with Red Sun
Located in Miami, FL
Double Exposure of Red sun into a the black shape of a silhouetted street signed evokes a surreal image of New York. Signed and dated on lower rig...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Surreal Blue Landscape
Located in Miami, FL
Cover Popular Photography, May 1978, Signed and dated on lower right, numbered on verso, 2/15 Printed later, other size available, unframed
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Ripple Effect ll
By Paul Dempsey
Located in East Hampton, NY
Ripple Effect II
Year: 2018
Medium: Photography (printed on metal)
Size: 30" x 20" (larger sizes available - inquire within)
16x24 on metal - $650
20x30 on metal - $900
Made to Order
Water Ripple Effect
About the Artist: A computer programmer and Webmaster by trade, Paul describes himself as a fine art photographer and a “digital manipulator.” His keen vision captures ordinary details from daily life and transforms them into images of beauty and wit, filled with contrasting shapes and effects.
Paul’s current series of abstract work focuses on macro images of nature combined with additional exposures of ice, snow, sand, and sky. These futuristic scenes, inspired by the writings of Kurt Vonnegut...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Metal
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Size: 30" x 20" (larger sizes available - inquire within)
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Surrealist photography for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Surrealist photography 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 photography created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, red, orange, purple and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Mitchell Funk, Rosemary Ellis, Brian Ziff, and FPA Francis Pavy Artist. Frequently made by artists working with Paper, and Photographic Paper 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 photography, so small editions measuring 4.5 inches across are also available. Prices for photography 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 $110 and tops out at $28,800, while the average work sells for $1,750.