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Surrealist Figurative Prints

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
Surrealist Figurative Aquatint Etching California Modernist Sculptor Artist
Located in Surfside, FL
Jack Zajac, American, born 1929 1964 Etching and aquatint hand printed on Fabriano paper, pencil signed and editioned. This one depicts winged angels. Edition Roman Numeral III Ima...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching, Aquatint

Nimrod - Héliogravure by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Héliogravure on brown-toned paper, so signature. On bot sheets, recto and verso. Edition of 6500 unsigned copies. Printed by Mourlot and published by Tériade, Paris. Ref. Mourlot,...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Photogravure

La Quete du Graal The Black Knight
Located in Hollywood, FL
ARTIST: Salvador Dali TITLE: La Quete du Graal The Black Knight MEDIUM: Etching EDITION NUMBER: XV/XXV SIGNED: Hand Signed by Salvador Dali PUBLISHER: Pamela Verlog MEASUREMEN...
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1970s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Sarah and the Angels - Lithograph by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Color lithograph realized by Marc Chagall in 1960 to illustrate "The Bible".  Edition of 6500, published by Tériade in no. 33 and 34 of the Art Magazine Verve. Printed by Mourlot a...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

David Saved by Michal - Lithograph by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Color lithograph realized by Marc Chagall in 1960 to illustrate "The Bible".  Edition of 6500, published by Tériade in no. 33 and 34 of the Art Magazine Verve. Printed by Mourlot a...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

MATTA - 10 EROTIC ETCHINGS - New School Portfolio
Located in Santa Monica, CA
ROBERTO MATTA (Chilean 1911- 2002) NEW SCHOOL PORTFOLIO (1943-5) (Sabatier 1-7, 4 prints not recorded by Sabatier) Portfolio with complete set of 10 etch...
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1940s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Leonor Fini, rare original serigraph on Rives paper, circa 1970
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
Rare print handsigned by surrealist artist Leonor Fini, inscreasingly esteemed with the movement of rediscovering art by women. This silkscreen is in perfect condition and from a ver...
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Mid-20th Century Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Paper

Adam and Eve Banished from the Paradise - Lithograph by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Color lithograph realized by Marc Chagall in 1960 to illustrate "The Bible".  Edition of 6500, published by Tériade in no. 33 and 34 of the Art Magazine Verve. Printed by Mourlot a...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Ivanhoe - Rowena
Located in Miami, FL
TECHNICAL INFORMATION: Salvador Dali Ivanhoe - Rowena 1978 Lithograph 29 1/2 x 21 1/2 in. Edition of 250 Pencil signed and numbered; certified authentic by Frank Hunter of the Sal...
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1970s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

A cage - Surrealist print, Limited edition, Established Polish artist
Located in Warsaw, PL
The work comes directly from the artist, is numbered, signed and made on sealed paper. Limited edition of 20. RAFAŁ OLBIŃSKI (born in 1943) He graduated from the Faculty of Archite...
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2010s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Color, Paper

Memories from Hampton, Figurative Surrealist print, Portrait, Polish art master
Located in Warsaw, PL
Vibrant giclee limited edition print by worldwidely established Polish artist Rafal Olbinski. Figurative surrealistic print with man in a hat with a bird cage. His side face has a cu...
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2010s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Paper, Color

Jonah and the Storm at Sea - Héliogravure by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Héliogravure on brown-toned paper, no signature. Héliogravure  on bot sheets, recto and verso. Edition of 6500 unsigned copies. Printed by Mourlot and published by Tériade on the A...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Photogravure

Miró, Composition (Dupin 1292), Miró Graveur (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Woodcut on vélin paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the volume, miró graveur II. 1961-1973, 1989. Published by Daniel Lelong, éditeur...
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1980s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Capricho de Goya n°7 - Héliogravure and Pochoir attr. to S. Dalì - 1977
Located in Roma, IT
Capricho de Goya n°7 is an héliogravure and stencil, realized in 1977, hand-signed and numbered n°125/200. Published by Berggruen Paris in 1977. Image dimensions: 21x15 cm. Incl...
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1970s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Engraving, Stencil

Purgatory 19 - Dante's Dream - woodcut - 1963
Located in Paris, IDF
Salvador Dali (1904-1989) Purgatory 19 - Dante's Dream Woodcut on paper Signature printed in the image 1960/63 Printed on paper Vélin BFK Rives Size 32,8 x 26,4 cm (c. 13 x 10 in) ...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Paper, Woodcut

Ahasuerus Sends Vasthi Away - Lithograph by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Color lithograph realized by Marc Chagall in 1960 to illustrate "The Bible".  Edition of 6500, published by Tériade in no. 33 and 34 of the Art Magazine Verve. Printed by Mourlot a...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Dante and Beatrice - Woodcut - 1963
Located in Roma, IT
Dante and Beatrice -  "The Divine Comedy" - Song 29 -  Purgatory is a woodcut print realized in 1963 for a series illustrating the Medieval poem of the "Divine Comedy" by Dante Aligh...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Jonah and the Whale - Héliogravure by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Héliogravure on brown-toned paper, no signature. Héliogravure  on bot sheets, recto and verso. Edition of 6500 unsigned copies. Printed by Mourlot and published by Tériade on the A...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Photogravure

Miró, Composition (Cramer 102; Mourlot 442), Derrière le miroir (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered. Good condition. Notes: From Derrière le miroir, N° 151-152. Published by Aimé Maeght, Éditeur, Paris; printed by Édit...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Sarah and the Angels - Héliogravure by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Héliogravure on brown-toned paper, no signature. Héliogravure  on bot sheets, recto and verso. Edition of 6500 unsigned copies. Printed by Mourlot and published by Tériade on the A...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Photogravure

"Blue Lagoon", Whimsical Beach Landscape with Figure, Lizard, Volcanoes & Planes
Located in Soquel, CA
Whimsical and vivacious limited editions screen-print on paper depicting a smiling nude figure lounging on a beach next to a fantastical orange and purple striped iguana, with volcanos erupting in the distance and several airplanes flying through the night sky by Phoebe Cole...
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1980s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Paper, Ink, Screen

Miró, Composition, Derrière le miroir (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From volume, Derrière le miroir, N° 186, 1970. Published by Aimé Maeght, Éditeur, P...
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1970s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Vitraux pour Jérusalem - Illustrated Book by M. Chagall, 1962
Located in Roma, IT
"Vitraux pour Jerusalem" is one of the most important books illustrated by Marc Chagall and considered as one of his editorial masterpieces. Th...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Paper, Lithograph

The Prophet - Héliogravure by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Héliogravure on brown-toned paper, so signature. Héliogravure  on bot sheets, recto and verso. Edition of 6500 unsigned copies. Printed by Mourlot and published by Tériade, Paris. ...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Photogravure

Ancient Views of Yokohama - Vintage Albumen Prints - 1890s
Located in Roma, IT
Ancient Views of Yokohama is an original vintage albumen print on single cardboard: 34 x 26 cm. It was realized in the 1890s. Good conditions except for being aged. Caption in Ita...
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1890s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Cardboard

The Flood - Héliogravure by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Héliogravure on brown-toned paper, so signature. On bot sheets, recto and verso. Edition of 6500 unsigned copies. Printed by Mourlot and published by Tériade, Paris. Ref. Mourlot,...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Photogravure

..sense of water, Figurative Surrealist print, Vibrant colors, Polish art master
Located in Warsaw, PL
Vibrant giclee limited edition print by worldwidely established Polish artist Rafal Olbinski. Figurative surrealistic print with a sailingship on the left side on the composition and...
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2010s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Paper, Color

Rachel has Stolen the Idols of Her Father - Lithograph by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Color lithograph realized by Marc Chagall in 1960 to illustrate "The Bible".  Edition of 6500, published by Tériade in no. 33 and 34 of the Art Magazine Verve. Printed by Mourlot a...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Le Roi Peste (The Plague Kings) - Etching by James Ensor - 1895
Located in Roma, IT
The Plague Kings is an original etching on the Japanese paper, realized by James Ensor in 1895, signed on the plate and dated, unique state, with the second signature on the reverse ...
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1890s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

The Language of the Prophet - Héliogravure by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Héliogravure on brown-toned paper, so signature. On bot sheets, recto and verso. Edition of 6500 unsigned copies. Printed by Mourlot and published by Tériade, Paris. Ref. Mourlot,...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Photogravure

Joel's Prophecy - Héliogravure by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Héliogravure on brown-toned paper, so signature. On bot sheets, recto and verso. Edition of 6500 unsigned copies. Printed by Mourlot and published by Tériade, Paris. Ref. Mourlot,...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Photogravure

Miró, Composition (Cramer 112; Mourlot 439-442), Derrière le miroir (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition, with centerfold, as issued. Notes: From the volume, Derrière le miroir, N° 164-165, 1967. ...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

The Poker Game, Surrealist Screenprint by Israel Rubinstein
Located in Long Island City, NY
The Poker Game by Israel Rubinstein, Israeli (1944) Date: 1980 Screenprint, signed and numbered in pencil Edition of 250 Image Size: 27 x 38 inches S...
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1980s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Screen

(after) Kurt Seligmann - pochoir
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: pochoir (after the painting). This exquisitely rich impression on black wove paper was published in 1941 by the Nierendorf Gallery, of New York, for the cover of a now quite ...
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1940s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Miró, Composition (Cramer 69; Dupin 292; Mourlot 286-294) (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good Condition. Notes: From folio, Miró 1959-1960, 1961. Published by Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York; pr...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Miró, Composition (Mourlot 234; Cramer 39) (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition, with centerfold, as issued. Notes: From volume, Joan Miro by Jacques Prévert and Georges R...
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1950s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Three Sisters With a Cat - Original Etching Hand Signed & Numbered
Located in Paris, IDF
Léonor FINI (1907-1996) Three sisters with a cat Original etching, 1973 Hand signed in pencil Numbered /275 copies On Arches vellum size 56 x 38 cm (c. 22 x 15 in) Very good condition
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1970s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

The Young Woman and the Old Man - Héliogravure by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Héliogravure on brown-toned paper, no signature. Héliogravure  on bot sheets, recto and verso. Edition of 6500 unsigned copies. Printed by Mourlot and published by Tériade on the A...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Photogravure

"Faded Jeans + Stuff" - Surrealist Colored Etching #10/20, 1976
Located in Soquel, CA
"Faded Jeans + Stuff" - Surrealist Colored Etching #10/20, 1976 Surrealist landscape with creatures by James C. Crabb (American, b. 1947). There is a low horizon, with objects that ...
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1970s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Laid Paper, Pigment, Lithograph

Masson, Composition, XXe Siècle (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the volume, XXe Siècle, Hommage à Dorothea Tanning, 1977. Published and printe...
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1970s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Miró, Composition (Cramer 69; Dupin 292; Mourlot 286-294) (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good Condition. Notes: From folio, Miró 1959-1960, 1961. Published by Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York; pr...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Volo di un Folletto - Etching by Guelfo Bianchini - 1976
Located in Roma, IT
Volo di un folletto is an etching realized by Guelfo Bianchini in 1976. The artwork is hand signed and dated by the artist. Dedication on the lower margin. Numbered on the lower lef...
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1970s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

La Fille de Minos (Daughter of Minos) - 1978
Located in Roma, IT
La Fille de Minos (The Daughter of Minos)  is a woodcut print on Arches Paper realized in 1978 to illustrated "L'Art d'Aimer" (The Art of Love) by Ovid. Hand signed and numbered in ...
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1970s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Salomon Appears - Héliogravure by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Héliogravure on brown-toned paper, so signature. On bot sheets, recto and verso. Edition of 6500 unsigned copies. Printed by Mourlot and published by Tériade, Paris. Ref. Mourlot,...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Photogravure

Paradise: Canto 32 from The Divine Comedy
Located in Washington, DC
Artist: Salvador Dali Medium: Woodblock engraving Title: Paradise: Canto 32 Portfolio: The Divine Comedy: Paradise Year: 1963 Edition: 4765 Framed Size: 19 1/8" x 16 5/8" Sheet Size:...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Engraving

Death is something like Cousin Cynthia (Spies/Leppien 13 IV), Max Ernst
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Photogram from a frottage in black in white on photosensitive paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good Condition; never framed or matted. Notes: A photogram was a...
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1930s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Photogram

Candiques - Héliogravure by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Héliogravure on brown-toned paper, so signature. Héliogravure  on bot sheets, recto and verso. Edition of 6500 unsigned copies. Printed by Mourlot and published by Tériade, Paris. ...
Category

1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Photogravure

Sarah and the Angels - Lithograph by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Color lithograph realized by Marc Chagall in 1960 to illustrate "The Bible".  Edition of 6500, published by Tériade in no. 33 and 34 of the Art Magazine Verve. Printed by Mourlot a...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Maravillas con Variaciones acrósticas en el Jardín de Miró (Mourlot, 1051-1072)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin d’Arches paper. Inscription: Signed in the plate and unnumbered, as issued. Good Condition. Notes: From the folio, Maravillas con variaciones acrósticas en el Jar...
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1970s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Sarah and Abimelech - Lithograph by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Color lithograph realized by Marc Chagall in 1960 to illustrate "The Bible".  Edition of 6500, published by Tériade in no. 33 and 34 of the Art Magazine Verve. Printed by Mourlot a...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Jean Arp - Original Etching
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Jean Arp - Original Etching 1954 Dimensions: 32 x 24 cm From the art review XXe siècle Unsigned and unumbered as issued
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1950s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Miró, Composition (Cramer 83; Mourlot 346), Derrière le miroir (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the volume, Derrière le miroir, N° 139-140, 1963. Published by Aimé Maeght, Éd...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Jean COCTEAU and Raymond MORETTI : The kiss- Original Hansigned Lithograph, 1973
Located in Paris, IDF
Jean Cocteau and Raymond Moretti The Kiss Original lithograph Printed signature in the plate, handsigned by Raymond Moretti Numbered 1/79 - Very look for artist proof bearing n°1 On...
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1970s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

The Shepherd on the Hill - Héliogravure by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Héliogravure on brown-toned paper, no signature. Héliogravure  on bot sheets, recto and verso. Edition of 6500 unsigned copies. Printed by Mourlot and published by Tériade on the A...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Photogravure

Esther Accusing Ama - Héliogravure by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Héliogravure on brown-toned paper, so signature. On bot sheets, recto and verso. Edition of 6500 unsigned copies. Printed by Mourlot and published by Tériade, Paris. Ref. Mourlot,...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Photogravure

The Face of Israel - Lithograph by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Color lithograph realized by Marc Chagall in 1960 to illustrate "The Bible".  Edition of 6500, published by Tériade in no. 33 and 34 of the Art Magazine Verve. Printed by Mourlot a...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Sarah and Moses - Héliogravure by Marc Chagall - 1960
Located in Roma, IT
Héliogravure on brown-toned paper, so signature. On bot sheets, recto and verso. Edition of 6500 unsigned copies. Printed by Mourlot and published by Tériade, Paris. Ref. Mourlot,...
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1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Photogravure

Samuel Bak Surrealist Etching Israeli Bezalel Artist "Hidden Pear", Fruit Bowl
Located in Surfside, FL
HIDDEN PEAR, color etching, signed in pencil, numbered 7/50, Jerusalem Print workshop blind stamp, image 7 ½ x 5 ½”, sheet 15 x 10 ¼”. Samuel Bak (born 12 August 1933) is a Polish- American painter and writer who survived the Holocaust and immigrated to Israel in 1948. Since 1993, he has lived in the United States. Samuel Bak was born in Wilno, Poland, Bak was recognized from an early age as having an artistic talent. He describes his family as secular, but proud of their Jewish identity. By 1939 when Bak was six years old, the war began and Wilno was transferred from Poland to Lithuania. When Wilno was occupied by the Germans on June 24, 1941, Bak and his family were forced to move into the ghetto. At the age of nine, he held his first exhibition inside the Ghetto. Bak and his mother sought refuge in a Benedictine convent where a Catholic nun named Maria Mikulska tried to help them. After returning to the ghetto, they were deported to a forced labour camp, but took shelter again in the convent where they remained in hiding until the end of the war. By the end of the war, Samuel and his mother were the only members of his extensive family to survive. His father, Jonas, was shot by the Germans in July 1944, only a few days before Samuel's own liberation. As Bak described the situation, "when in 1944 the Soviets liberated us, we were two among two hundred of Vilna's survivors--from a community that had counted 70 or 80 thousand." Bak and his mother as pre-war Polish citizens were allowed to leave Soviet-occupied Wilno and travel to central Poland, at first settling briefly in Lodz. They soon left Poland and traveled into the American occupied zone of Germany. From 1945 to 1948, he and his mother lived in Displaced Persons camps in Germany. He spent most of this period at the Landsberg am Lech DP camp in Germany. It was there he painted a self-portrait shortly before repudiating his Bar Mitzvah ceremony. Bak also studied painting in Munich during this period, and painted "A Mother and Son", 1947, which evokes some of his dark memories of the Holocaust and escape from Soviet-occupied Poland. In 1948, Bak and his mother immigrated to Israel. In 1952, he studied art at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. After serving in the Israel Defense Forces, he continued his studies in Paris (from 1956 at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts) and spent various periods of time in Rome, Paris, Switzerland and Israel before settling permanently in the United States. In 2001, Bak returned to Vilnius for the first time and has since visited his hometown several times. Samuel Bak is a conceptual artist with elements of post-modernism as he employs different styles and visual vernaculars, i.e. surrealism (Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte), analytical cubism (Picasso), pop art (Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein) and quotations from the old masters. The artist never paints direct scenes of mass death. Instead, he employs allegory, metaphor and certain artistic devices such as substitution: toys instead of the murdered children who played with them, books, instead of the people who read them. Further devices are quotations of iconographical prototypes, i.e. Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" on the Sistine Ceiling or Albrecht Dürer's famous engraving entitled "Melencholia" . In the late 1980s Bak opened up about his paintings, stating they convey “a sense of a world that was shattered.” He turns these prototypes into ironical statements. Irony in the art of Samuel Bak does not mean parody or derision, but rather disenchantment, and the attempt to achieve distance from pain. Recurring symbols are: the Warsaw Ghetto Child, Crematorium Chimneys or vast backgrounds of Renaissance landscape that symbolize the indifference of the outside world. These form a disturbing contrast with the broken and damaged images in the foreground. Samuel Bak's paintings cause discomfort, they are a warning against complacency, a bulwark against collective amnesia with reference to all acts of barbarism, worldwide and throughout the ages, through his personal experience of genocide. In Bak's piece entitled Trains Bak creates a vast grey landscape with large mounts creating the structure of a train. Massive taper candles burn in the distance further down the train tracks, surrounding an eruption. The smoke from the candles and volcano pour into a sky of dark ominous clouds that lurk over the landscape. Here Bak has created a whole new meaning for “trains.” Many of Bak’s pieces incorporate aspects of Jewish culture and the holocaust with a dark and creative twist, such as Shema Israel...
Category

20th Century Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Surrealist figurative prints for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Surrealist figurative prints 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 figurative prints created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, orange, red, yellow and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, (after) René Magritte, and Rafał Olbiński. Frequently made by artists working with Lithograph, and Etching 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 figurative prints, so small editions measuring 2.5 inches across are also available. Prices for figurative prints 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 $48 and tops out at $1,450,000, while the average work sells for $941.

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