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Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

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
Original 1969 Surrealist Bronze, Marble Sculpture Alma Del Quijote Salvador Dali
Located in Surfside, FL
Salvador Dali (1904-1989) – Surrealist bronze sculpture by Salvador Dalí depicting an interpretation of the soul of Don Quiote. The sculpture is mounted on...
Category

1960s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Marble, Bronze

Menorah with Jerusalem Stone Base
Located in Missouri, MO
Menorah, 1980 Salvador Dali (Spanish, 1904-1989) Silvered Bronze and Jerusalem Stone Base Signed Lower Center Edition H.C. Lower Center 20 x 12.25 x 5.75 inches Salvador Dali was bo...
Category

1980s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Stone, Silver, Bronze

Song of Songs of Solomon Sculpture
Located in Hollywood, FL
FINE ART ACQUISITIONS ARTIST: Salvador Dali TITLE: Song of Songs of Solomon Sculpture MEDIUM: Bronze medal SIGNED: Signed in the sculpture, not hand signed MEASUREMENTS: sc...
Category

1970s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

20th Century Surrealist Ceramic Sculpture by LuAnne Tackett Simpson
Located in Hoddesdon, GB
This stunning piece of surrealist art captures the viewer's imagination with intricate forms and vibrant colours. It features an interplay of organic shapes, evoking a dreamlike qual...
Category

1980s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Ceramic

Daum Montre Molle Sculpture
Located in Hollywood, FL
ARTIST: Salvador Dali TITLE: Daum Montre Molle Sculpture Designed by Salvador Dali for Daum MEDIUM: pate de verde glass and bronze sculpture. Pate de ve...
Category

Late 20th Century Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Glass

Homage to Newton (bronze sculpture)
Located in Aventura, FL
Bronze with patina sculpture. Incised signature by the artist and stamp numbered with foundry and date. From the edition of 350. Size including marble plinth approx 15 x 8.5 x 3.5 i...
Category

1980s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Large Salvador Dali Surrealist Bronze Portrait Sculpture Mexican Master Aguilar
Located in Surfside, FL
Carlos Aguilar y Linares, Mexican Sculptor (1945-2010) Sculpture chose him. In his hands and his soul he always had the necessary impulse to create wi...
Category

20th Century Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Marble, Bronze

American Surrealist pipes and playing cards spirit of Magritte abstract Montage
Located in Norwich, GB
I love this extraordinary American surrealist piece - a collage/montage, an assembly of objects in a velvet-clad box/frame - for a number of reasons reasons. I love the fact that it depicts pipes, among the most iconic images of the surrealist movement, rooted in Magritte’s famous 1929 painting which depicts a pipe accompanied by the caption “Ceci n'est pas une pipe” (This is not a pipe). Marcel Duchamp loved using pipes...
Category

1930s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Clay, Glass, Paper, Found Objects, Wood

Kinetic Bronze Expressionist Sculpture Skier or Surfer Modernist Sporting Figure
Located in Surfside, FL
Vintage stylized figural sculpture by J James Akston (1898-1983 Poland/New York/Florida) Crafted of cast bronze with a rich dark brown patina. A sports figure, depicting a snow skii...
Category

Mid-20th Century Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Marble, Bronze

Gold Gilt Bronze Sculpture Pendant Art Israeli Tumarkin Abstract Surrealist
Located in Surfside, FL
Measures about 5.25 X 3.75 inches. Box is 17 X 13 inches. Signed by artist verso. From the literature that I have seen I believe the edition size was limited to 10, I do not know if ...
Category

1960s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Gold, Bronze

Four Earth Signs: Each Eye is an Earth, Bronze Sculpture by Thom Cooney-Crawford
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Thom Cooney-Crawford, American (1944 - ) Title: Four Earth Signs: Each Eye is an Earth Medium: Bronze Sculpture, signature and number inscribed Edition: 4/5 Size: 21 in. x 4 ...
Category

1990s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Four Earth Signs: Wingeo, Bronze Sculpture by Thom Cooney-Crawford
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Thom Cooney-Crawford, American (1944 - ) Title: Four Earth Signs: Wingeo Medium: Bronze Sculpture, signature and number inscribed Edition: 4/5 Size: 20.5 in. x 11 in. x 4 in....
Category

1990s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Four Earth Signs: Lunette, Bronze Sculpture by Thom Cooney-Crawford
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Thom Cooney-Crawford, American (1944 - ) Title: Four Earth Signs: Lunette Medium: Bronze Sculpture, signature and number inscribed Edition: 4/5 Size: 21.5 in. x 7 in. x 3 in....
Category

1990s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Epiphany
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Stefan Vladescu, Romanian/American (1952 - ) Title: Epiphany Year: 1994 Medium: Bronze Sculpture, signature and date inscribed Size: 25 inch diameter x 1.5 wide Base 3 x 8...
Category

1990s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Direction blue - black. 2006, glass, copper, author technique 18x56x50 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Direction blue - black. 2006, glass, copper, author technique 18x56x50 cm
Category

Early 2000s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Copper

20th Century Surrealist Ceramic Sculpture LuAnne Tackett Simpson
Located in Hoddesdon, GB
This stunning piece of surrealist art captures the viewer's imagination with intricate forms and earthy tones . It features an interplay of organic shapes, evoking a dreamlike qualit...
Category

1980s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Ceramic

Gilt Bronze Sculpture Brooch Wearable Art Israeli Tumarkin Abstract Surrealist
Located in Surfside, FL
Measures about 3.75 X 3.5 inches. Box is 11 X 11 inches. (Piece is in excellent condition. box frame has some minor wear and piece might need to be remounted, it has been removed and...
Category

1960s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Gold, Bronze

Beautiful and elegant blue painted bronze sculpture "Clio, Musa della Storia"
Located in Palm Beach, FL
Patinated bronze, lost-wax casting. Antonio Nocera - Italian painter and sculptor, born in Caivano (Naples) in 1949. Antonio is currently engaged in the...
Category

2010s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Geometrical Clouds
Located in Henderson, NV
Limited Edition of 10 sets. Laser cut steel with powder coat. “Geometrical Clouds” is reimagined as a major theme in my life’s work, with the earliest pieces of that name dating back...
Category

2010s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Adam Kadmon ("Vision"), Kabbalistic Jewish Russian sculpture signed & inscribed
Located in New York, NY
Grisha Bruskin Adam Kadmon (Vision), Signed and signed dedicated to art historian and collector Jacob Baal Teshuva), 1992 Steel Sculpture (Signed, Dated & Dedicated) 6 × 6 × 3 inche...
Category

1990s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Steel

Oiseau de fer (signed chrome plated sculpture)
Located in Aventura, FL
Chrome plated metal sculpture. Incised signature by Wifredo Lam. Edition 243/500B. Size 10.5 x 5.5 x 3.5 inches. Artwork is in excellent condition. Certificate of Authenticity ...
Category

1970s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Metal

1967 Pop Art, May Wilson, Surrealist Feminist Junk Assemblage Painted Sculpture
By May Wilson
Located in Surfside, FL
May Wilson (1905–1986) was an American artist and figure in the 1960s New York City avant-garde art world. A pioneer of the feminist and mail art movement, she is best known for her Surrealist junk assemblages and her "Ridiculous Portrait" photo collages. Wilson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, into an underprivileged family. Her father died when she was young. She was reared by her Irish Catholic mother, who sewed piecework at home. Wilson left school after the ninth grade to become a stenographer/secretary to help support her family. When she turned 20, she married a young lawyer, William S. Wilson, Jr., and give birth to her first child. She continued to work until the birth of her second child, after which she devoted her energies primarily to mothering and homemaking. In 1942, the couple had prospered enough to move to Towson, Maryland, where she began to take correspondence courses in art and art history from several schools, including the University of Chicago. In 1948, after the marriage of their daughter, the couple moved to a gentleman's farm north of Towson, where she pursued painting and gave private art lessons to neighbors. She exhibited her paintings, scenes of everyday life painted in a flat, purposefully primitive manner in local galleries and restaurants. In 1952 and 1958, she won awards for work submitted to juried exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art. In 1956, her son, the writer Williams S. Wilson, gave to Ray Johnson, the founder of the New York Correspondence School, his mother's address. This began a friendship and artistic collaboration between Johnson and Wilson, which would last the remainder of her life. Wilson became an integral part of Johnson's mail art circle and was initiated into the New York avant-garde through letters and small works that she exchanged with Robert Watts, George Brecht, Ad Reinhardt, Leonard Cohen, Arman, and many others. When her marriage dissolved, she moved to New York City in the spring of 1966, aged 61, taking up residence first in the Chelsea Hotel and then in a studio next door, where she threw legendary soirées and became known as the "Grandma Moses of the Underground". By the time she arrived, Wilson was already working with photomontage collage techniques. Encouraged by Johnson, who had sent her magazines through the mail, she scissored patterns into images of pin-up girls and muscle men until they resembled doilies or snowflakes, as Wilson called them. She decorated her hotel room and later her studio on West 23rd Street with these and other manipulated, found object images. Around this time, she also began her series of neo Dada "Ridiculous Portraits", for which she would ride the subway to Times Square, where she made exaggerated faces in photo booths. She then would cut and paste her photo-booth face onto postcards, along with Old Master reproductions, fashion shoots, and softcore Playboy magazine pornography. Long before artists such as Cindy Sherman and Yasumasa Morimura embarked on similar critical projects, Wilson's "Ridiculous Portraits" sent up the ubiquitous sexism and ageism that exists in popular and fine-art images of women. At the age of 70, she converted a nude photograph of herself into a stamp that she pasted on envelopes. Her collages and humorous self-portraits were made as gifts and mail-art items for her friends and were not widely known until after her death. Her work was contemporaneous with the Arte Povera artists Jannis Kounellis and ‎Michelangelo Pistoletto. She was also an innovator of junk art assemblages that incorporated real objects, such as high-heel shoes, bed sheets, sauce pans, toasters, liquor bottles, ice trays, and wrapped baby dolls. Her sculptures were inspired by Surrealist and Dada practices and are similar in spirit to Yayoi Kusama's contemporary accumulations. Wilson was the subject of a 1969 experimental documentary by Amalie R. Rothschild, "Woo Hoo? May Wilson". Since her death, May Wilson's work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and retrospectives at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; Gracie Mansion Gallery, New York; the Morris Museum, Morristown, N.J.; the Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York City; and The University of the Arts, Philadelphia. Selected Exhibitions 2010 "Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968", University of the Arts, Philadelphia (traveling exhibition) 2008 "1968/2008: The Culture of Collage", Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York, City 2008 "Ridiculous Portrait: The Art of May Wilson", Morris Museum, Morristown, New Jersey 2008 "Woo Who? May Wilson", Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York City 1995 [Retrospective], The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland 2001 "May Wilson: Ridiculous Portraits and Snowflakes", Gracie Mansion Gallery, New York, City 2001 "Inside Out: Outside In-The Correspondence of Ray Johnson and May Wilson", Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, California 1991 "May Wilson: The New York Years", Gracie Mansion Gallery, New York City 1973 "Sneakers", Kornblee Gallery, New York City 1973 "Small Works: Selections from the Richard Brown Baker Collection of Contemporary Art", RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island 1971 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 1970 "Sculpture Annual 1970", Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City 1965 The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland 1962 The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 1957 Bookshop Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland Public collections Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City) The Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, Maryland) Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, New York) References William S. Wilson, "May Wilson: Constructing Woman (1905-1986)", in Ann Aptaker, ed., Ridiculous Portrait: The Art of May Wilson, ed. Ann Aptaker, Morristown, N.J.: Morris Museum, Camhi, Leslie, "Late Bloomer", Village Voice, December 18, 2001 Giles, Gretchen, "Cosmic Litterers: Artists Ray Johnson and May Wilson: Taking the Cake", "Northern California Bohemian," June 14–20, 2001 McCarthy, Gerard, "May Wilson: Homespun Rebel", Art in America, vol. 96, no. 8, September 2008, pp. 142–47 Sachs, Sid and Kalliopi Minioudaki, Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968. Philadelphia: The University of the Arts, 2010, ISBN 978-0789210654 Wilson, William S. Art is a Jealous Lover: May Wilson: 1905-1986, andy warhol...
Category

1960s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Oh, Georgia (Homage to O'Keeffe)
By Carolee Thea
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Carolee Thea Title: Oh, Georgia (Homage to O'Keeffe) Year: 1986 Medium: Unique Wall Sculpture: Oak, Varnished Plywood and Bone Construction, signed and dated verso Size: ...
Category

1980s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Oak, Plywood, Found Objects

Four Earth Signs: Out of the Bronze Tree Lunette, Bronze by Thom Cooney-Crawford
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Thom Cooney-Crawford, American (1944 - ) Title: Four Earth Signs: Out of the Bronze Tree Lunette Medium: Bronze Sculpture, signature and number insc...
Category

1990s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Loner
Located in New York, NY
Dionisios Fragias is a New York -based artist born on the Greek island of Kefalonia and raised in New York City. He is the protege of the artist Jeff Koons whose years-long mentorshi...
Category

2010s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Steel, Stainless Steel

"Semaphore IV" by David Hostetler
Located in Palm Beach, FL
Bronze, patinaed 68″h x 12″w x 11″d on bronze base An elegant sculpture for a garden, office or home. She is part of the dream inspired sculptures in which the aspects of femininit...
Category

2010s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

Gymnast (bust), Bronze Sculpture
Located in Aventura, FL
Bronze sculpture with marble base. Incised artist signature and date. Sculpture size 13.5 x 7 x 6 inches (including base). Sculpture is in excellent condition (marble base has a c...
Category

1980s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Bronze

"Mindful" Unique Surrealist Sculpture - steel, cast concrete, glass, paint 2017
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
“Mindful” 2017 A unique, surrealist sculpture made from fabricated steel, glass, cast concrete, yellow glass & paint. 28 h x 33 w x 14 d (inches) Signed Provenance: The collection of the artist Born in Jamaica, West Indies, and raised in Rochester, New York, Earl James...
Category

2010s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Concrete, Steel

LIMBO
Located in New York, NY
LIMBO, 2021, cast forton, acrylic paint, cotton threading, 24 x 20 x 16 inches. The ornate and sensual contours of Nora Chavooshian’s sculptures deri...
Category

2010s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Cotton, Yarn, Acrylic

Gem
Located in New York, NY
Dionisios Fragias is a New York -based artist born on the Greek island of Kefalonia and raised in New York City. He is the protege of the artist Jeff Koons whose years-long mentorshi...
Category

2010s Surrealist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Steel, Stainless Steel

Surrealist abstract sculptures for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Surrealist abstract sculptures 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 abstract sculptures created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of purple, blue and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Thom Cooney-Crawford, Salvador Dalí, Dionisios Fragias, and (after) Salvador Dali. Frequently made by artists working with Metal, and Bronze 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 abstract sculptures, so small editions measuring 4 inches across are also available. Prices for abstract sculptures 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 $300 and tops out at $250,000, while the average work sells for $4,950.

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