Surrealist Art
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
Artist: Valton Tyler
Ba Ba Ba Ma Tri dom
By Valton Tyler
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
1970s Surrealist Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Don't Hurt Me
By Valton Tyler
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
1970s Surrealist Art
Materials
Linen, Oil
Tooth Ache
By Valton Tyler
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
1980s Surrealist Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
We're All Here
By Valton Tyler
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
1970s Surrealist Art
Materials
Rag Paper, Etching
On the Edge of Landscape
By Valton Tyler
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 paintings, prints and drawings, whose style defies convenient labels. Abstract, surreal, cartoonish, sci-fi fantastic, metaphysical, apocalyptic-Baroque - all of these fit but also fall short of fully describing his art." (Edward M. Gomez, "Futuristic Forms Frolic Under Eerie Texan Skies...
Category
1990s Surrealist Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
One Little Stage
By Valton Tyler
Located in Dallas, TX
In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...
Category
1960s Surrealist Art
Materials
Rag Paper, Etching
Bang, Bang, Banjio
By Valton Tyler
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
1970s Surrealist Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Self-Inflicted
By Valton Tyler
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
1990s Surrealist Art
Materials
Oil
Whistle
By Valton Tyler
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
1970s Surrealist Art
Materials
Rag Paper, Etching
Creek Pea
By Valton Tyler
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 Art
Materials
Linen, Oil
Red in the Sky
By Valton Tyler
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
1970s Surrealist Art
Materials
Linen, Oil
Ore-T-Ba
By Valton Tyler
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
1970s Surrealist Art
Materials
Linen, Oil
Spindles
By Valton Tyler
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
1980s Surrealist Art
Materials
Rag Paper, Etching
154 Foot Sculpture That Never Was
By Valton Tyler
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
1970s Surrealist Art
Materials
Aquatint, Rag Paper, Etching
Dinner in the Sky
By Valton Tyler
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 paintings, prints and drawings, whose style defies convenient labels. Abstract, surreal, cartoonish, sci-fi fantastic, metaphysical, apocalyptic-Baroque - all of these fit but also fall short of fully describing his art." (Edward M. Gomez, "Futuristic Forms Frolic Under Eerie Texan Skies...
Category
1970s Surrealist Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Front Elevation of Section 17
By Valton Tyler
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 paintings, prints and drawings, whose style defies convenient labels. Abstract, surreal, cartoonish, sci-fi fantastic, metaphysical, apocalyptic-Baroque - all of these fit but also fall short of fully describing his art." (The Living Arts, June 13, 2000, p. B2)
Valton Tyler was born in 1944 in Texas, where "the industrial world of oil refineries made a long-lasting impression on Valton as a very young child living in Texas City." (Reynolds, p. 25) After leaving Texas City, Valton made his way to Dallas, where he briefly enrolled at the Dallas Art Institute, but found it to be too social and commercial for his taste. After Valton's work was introduced to Donald Vogel (founder of Valley House Gallery), "Vogel arranged for Tyler to use the printmaking facilities in the art department of the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where the young artist essentially taught himself several demanding printmaking techniques. 'It was remarkable,' Vogel says. 'Not only did he learn complicated etching methods, but he was able to express himself powerfully in whatever medium he explored.' Vogel became the publisher of Tyler's prints. Among them, the artist made editions of some 50 different images whose sometimes stringy abstract forms and more solid, architecturally arresting elements became the precursors of his later, mature style." (Gomez, Raw Vision #35, p. 36)
"Front Elevation of Section 17" is plate number 34, and is reproduced in "The First Fifty Prints: Valton Tyler" with text by Rebecca Reynolds, published for Valley House Gallery by Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas, Texas, 1972.
In "The First Fifty Prints," Reynolds writes, “this plate can be seen as a culmination of the artist’s earlier uses of aquatint and as a new direction the artist will take in his compositions. In early plates such as ‘Joy,’ Plate No. 12, and ‘Do Not Touch,’ Plate No. 20, the artist has presented his designs to our unaccustomed eyes, either formally, by placing them on sculpture pedestals, or more abstractly, using smaller soft ground silhouettes. In later examples such as ‘One Little Stage,’ Plate No. 24, or ‘Heritage,’ Plate No. 25, we were brought closer to a direct interaction with the forms as they began to fill the plates with increasing sculptural and monumental qualities. It was still possible to maintain a more passive point of view because of the stage format of the compositions. In ‘Avenue 11,’ Plate No. 26, as we have seen, the artist unveils the true authority of his designs by placing them in our environment to compete with our reality of a familiar cityscape and to make us question our ideas of aesthetics and logic. In ‘Front Elevation’ we enter into and are confronted with these structures in their own massive landscape...
Category
1970s Surrealist Art
Materials
Rag Paper, Etching, Aquatint
A Sculpture Framed by a Print
By Valton Tyler
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 Art
Materials
Rag Paper, Etching, Aquatint
Rear Section of B
By Valton Tyler
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 Art
Materials
Etching, Aquatint
Jungle Tongue
By Valton Tyler
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 paintings, prints and drawings, whose style defies convenient labels. Abstract, surreal, cartoonish, sci-fi fantastic, metaphysical, apocalyptic-Baroque - all of these fit but also fall short of fully describing his art." (Edward M. Gomez, "Futuristic Forms Frolic Under Eerie Texan Skies...
Category
Late 20th Century Surrealist Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Birth Then?
By Valton Tyler
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
1970s Surrealist Art
Materials
Rag Paper, Etching
Rational Forest
By Valton Tyler
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 paintings, prints and drawings, whose style defies convenient labels. Abstract, surreal, cartoonish, sci-fi fantastic, metaphysical, apocalyptic-Baroque - all of these fit but also fall short of fully describing his art." (Edward M. Gomez, "Futuristic Forms Frolic Under Eerie Texan Skies...
Category
Late 20th Century Surrealist Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Just Pure Honest Fun
By Valton Tyler
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 Art
Materials
Rag Paper, Etching, Aquatint
Tippicanoe and Tyler Too
By Valton Tyler
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 Art
Materials
Etching
Brow Ye Ye Bam
By Valton Tyler
Located in Dallas, TX
In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined pa...
Category
1970s Surrealist Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Space Eagles
By Valton Tyler
Located in Dallas, TX
In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...
Category
1970s Surrealist Art
Materials
Paper, Etching
Joy
By Valton Tyler
Located in Dallas, TX
In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...
Category
20th Century Surrealist Art
Materials
Etching
Journey
By Valton Tyler
Located in Dallas, TX
In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...
Category
1960s Surrealist Art
Materials
Rag Paper, Etching
Music Box
By Valton Tyler
Located in Dallas, TX
In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...
Category
1970s Surrealist Art
Materials
Rag Paper, Etching, Aquatint
Pillow Machine
By Valton Tyler
Located in Dallas, TX
In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...
Category
1960s Surrealist Art
Materials
Rag Paper, Etching, Aquatint
Anxiety
By Valton Tyler
Located in Dallas, TX
In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler: Visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined painting...
Category
1980s Surrealist Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Night Shift
By Valton Tyler
Located in Dallas, TX
In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...
Category
1970s Surrealist Art
Materials
Rag Paper, Etching, Aquatint
Grop #2
By Valton Tyler
Located in Dallas, TX
In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined pa...
Category
1970s Surrealist Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Bird Da
By Valton Tyler
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 Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Surrealist art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Surrealist art 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 art 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, purple, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, and Leonor Fini. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Lithograph 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 art, so small editions measuring 1 inches across are also available. Prices for art 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 $1 and tops out at $1,450,000, while the average work sells for $1,426.
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