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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
Period: 1950s
Arthur Rimbaud - Rare Book Illustrated by Ardengo Soffici - 1911
Located in Roma, IT
Hard cover designed and handmade by Ardengo Soffici, in excellent conditions. On the frontispiece we can read handwritten: "Silvio e Luigi Perina Roma 5 Marzo 1916". Language: Italian.
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Paper

Monaco by Jean Cocteau, 1959 - Original Lithograph Poster
Located in New York, NY
Artist: Jean Cocteau Medium: Original Lithograph Poster, 1959 Dimensions: 25.5 x 19.5 in, 64.8 x 49.5 cm Classic Poster Paper - Excellent Condition A This original lithographic p...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

After Pablo Picasso - Don Quixote - Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
After PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) Don Quixote 1955 Dimensions: 65 x 50 cm Printed signature and date Edition Succession Picasso, Paris (posthumous reproductive edition) Editions de la ...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

(after) Marino Marini - "Le cheval au manege" pochoir
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: pochoir (after the lithograph). Printed by the atelier of Daniel Jacomet, and published in Paris in 1955 by Heinz Berggruen. The image measures 5 x 3 3/4 inches (130 x 93 mm)...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph, Stencil

Le Cheval (The Horse) — Mid-Century Cubism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Léopold Survage, 'Le Cheval' (The Horse), color etching, edition 60, 1953. Signed and numbered '46/60' in pencil. Initialed in the plate, lower right. A superb, richly-inked impressi...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Etching

Israeli Large Vibrant Surrealist Flowers Oil Painting
By Milia Laufer
Located in Surfside, FL
Milia Laufer, born Romania. From 1951 lived and worked in Safed. Together with her husband opened one of the earliest galleries in Israel, in Tiberias. Worked in watercolors and oils...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Sept Microbes - Rare Book - 1953
Located in Roma, IT
Edition of 1100 copies. Copy on Marais une fleur paper. Includes 31 colorful, scale reproductions of original works by Ernst. French language. Binding partially detached. Very good c...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Paper

After Pablo Picasso - Women and Dove - Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
After PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) Women and Dove Dimensions: 50 x 40 cm Signed and dated in the plate Edition Succession Picasso, Paris. Editions de la Paix
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

PLATE IX (FROM LA BAGUE D'AURORE SUITE)
Located in Aventura, FL
Plate IX from Suite La Bague d'aurore (The Ring of Dawn Suite). Aquatint in colours, on BFK Rives paper, with full margins. Hand signed and numbered by the artist. Image size 4.5 x 5...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Paper, Etching, Aquatint

Princess and Prince, Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina Fairy Tales
Located in Miami, FL
Italian illustrator Gianni Benvenuti paints a charming fantasy scene. It's of an extreme closeup of a tiny crowned and winged Prince and Princess They are standing upright in a dand...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Gouache

(after) Marino Marini - "Cavalier et cheval" pochoir
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: pochoir (after the lithograph). Printed by the atelier of Daniel Jacomet, and published in Paris in 1955 by Heinz Berggruen. The image measures 5 1/4 x 3 3/4 inches (135 x 10...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph, Stencil

Early Street Art - New York Urban Factory Scene - Mid Century - Factory X
Located in Miami, FL
This early work from 1955 by Dong Kingman N.A. is as surreal as it is a document of a place. The artist effectively captures a slice of American urban life but constructs the compo...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Rag Paper, Watercolor

(after) Julio Gonzalez - "Tete aux cheveux defaits" pochoir
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: pochoir (after the watercolor). Printed in Paris in 1957 by Jacomet and published by the Galerie Berggruen for a rare catalogue. Image size: 5 1/2 x 4 inches (142 x 98 mm). S...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph, Stencil

L'Uva e la Croce - Rare Book Illustrated by Ardengo Soffici - 1951
Located in Roma, IT
L'Uva e la Croce, autoritratto d'artista italiano nel quadro del suo tempo. Autobiographical work by Ardengo Soffici (Rignano sull'Arno,1879 – Vittoria Apuana,1964), in which the aut...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Paper

Clef des Songes - Rare Book by Frans Masereel - 1950
Located in Roma, IT
Edition of 715 copies including 30 original full-page woodcuts by the author. Copy on teinté paper. Includes a nice dedication on frontispiece to Nesto Jacometti by the author.   Co...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Paper

(after) Marino Marini - "Cavaliers et chevaux" pochoir
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: pochoir (after the lithograph). Printed by the atelier of Daniel Jacomet, and published in Paris in 1955 by Heinz Berggruen. The image measures 5 3/8 x 4 inches (135 x 103 mm...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph, Stencil

(after) Julio Gonzalez - "Personnage barbu" pochoir
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: pochoir (after the watercolor). Printed in Paris in 1957 by Jacomet and published by the Galerie Berggruen for a rare catalogue. Image size: 6 3/4 x 3 3/4 inches (173 x 97 mm...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph, Stencil

(after) Julio Gonzalez - "Tete sur fond rouille" pochoir
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: pochoir (after the watercolor). Printed in Paris in 1957 by Jacomet and published by the Galerie Berggruen for a rare catalogue. Image size: 5 1/4 x 3 3/4 inches (133 x 98 mm...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph, Stencil

The Web
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Web Engraving and soft ground, 1950 Signed, titled, dated and numbered by the artist Edition: 35 (26/35) Printed by Master Printer, Jon Clemens, 2000 Provenance: Estate of the ar...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Engraving, Etching

Untitled (Abstraction)
Located in Chicago, IL
A black and white, Surrealist watercolor on paper by artist Desmond McLean in a cerused black frame. McLean was born in Sligo, Ireland and raised in Brooklyn, NY. He was a professor...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Watercolor

(after) Marino Marini - "Cheval rouge sur fond vert" pochoir
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: pochoir (after the lithograph). Printed by the atelier of Daniel Jacomet, and published in Paris in 1955 by Heinz Berggruen. The image measures 5 x 3 1/2 inches (130 x 90 mm)...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph, Stencil

(after) Marino Marini - "Cavalier et cheval, bordure orange" pochoir
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: pochoir (after the lithograph). Printed by the atelier of Daniel Jacomet, and published in Paris in 1955 by Heinz Berggruen. The image measures 5 x 3 3/4 inches (130 x 97 mm)...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph, Stencil

German school surrealist erotic drawing, Circa 1950.
Located in Firenze, IT
Surrealist composition, signed work by the German female artist Anja Decker. It belongs to the best and most prolific and experimental period of the artist, residing at that time in...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Paper, Ink

La Dentelliere
Located in Hollywood, FL
ARTIST: Salvador Dali TITLE: La Dentelliere MEDIUM: Etching on a plate marred by nails shot at it SIGNED: Hand Signed PUBLISHER: Graft Verlag/Arztesammlerkreis EDITION NUMBER: ...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Etching

(after) Marino Marini - "Jongleur et chevaux" pochoir
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: pochoir (after the lithograph). Printed by the atelier of Daniel Jacomet, and published in Paris in 1955 by Heinz Berggruen. The image measures 5 1/4 x 4 inches (133 x 100 mm...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph, Stencil

(after) Marino Marini - "Cavaliers et chevaux" pochoir
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: pochoir (after the lithograph). Printed by the atelier of Daniel Jacomet, and published in Paris in 1955 by Heinz Berggruen. The image measures 5 x 4 inches (130 x 100 mm). N...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph, Stencil

Surreal figure watercolor spanish surrealism
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Eugenio Granell (1912-2001) - Surrealist figure. Watercolor Watercolor measures 29x22 cm. Frame measures 56x49 cm. Eugenio Granell was born in La Coruña in 1912. He lived most of his childhood in Santiago de Compostela, a city that marked a large part of his artistic work. From a young age, he showed a great predisposition to art, specifically to music, and in 1928 he moved to Madrid to study violin at the Escuela Superior de Música. There he met the composer and director Enrique Casal Chapí. It is at this time when he begins to attend political and literary gatherings in Madrid cafes. His circle of friends - such as Benjamín Péret or Wilfredo Lam - brought him closer to the orbit of the Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (POUM), in which he began to serve in 1935. At the outbreak of the Spanish civil war, he joined the militias loyal to the republican government to defend the capital and combined this activity with the direction of El Combatiente Rojo, the POUM newspaper. After the war ended, he was doubly persecuted; on the one hand, the victorious fascist army, which tried to get rid of any signs of active resistance against the new regime. On the other hand, Granell would suffer the persecution of his own communist comrades, since, under Stalin's mandate, the POUM and its militancy -of a Trotskyist nature and opposed to the Stalinist line of the Soviet Union- were considered enemies of communism and, therefore, this, condemned to persecutions and murders. Thus, in 1939, he must move to France. There he finds a reality different from the one he was looking for and went through various concentration camps until, after several attempts, he managed to escape and reach Paris -where he will meet Péret and Lam- to find a way out of his situation, leaving for South America. On the train that takes him to the port of La Havre, he meets Amparo Segarra, a Valencian fleeing Franco's repression, who would become his partner. They embark to Chile but, given the impossibility of this country to receive more refugees, they divert to the Dominican Republic, where they will settle, now together with Amparo, in the capital, Ciudad Trujillo. There, the artist will become part of the Symphony Orchestra as first violin. In 1941 he met André Breton when interviewing him for the newspaper La Nación. From this meeting a friendship will arise that will last until his death in 1966. In 1944 he publishes the book of stories El hombre verde. In 1946, only six years after settling in, under the hardening of the Trujillo dictatorship, he refused to sign a letter of adherence to the regime, so they had to leave the country and moved to Guatemala. There he entered as a professor at the School of Plastic Arts, maintaining an intense cultural activity. At the beginning of the Guatemalan revolution, in 1950, he had to flee the country again, for fear of Stalinist persecution. This time the Granell-Segarra family arrives in Puerto Rico, where the artist will occupy the chair of Art History at the Faculty of Humanities. In these years he published Isla Cofre Mítico -which is tremendously close to the surrealist poetic style- and participated in various collective exhibitions at the Puerto Rican university. Although in Santo Domingo he had collaborated with him on poetry magazines...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Watercolor

Salvador Dali - Attack on the Windmils - Original Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Salvador Dali - Attack on the Windmils - Original Lithograph Joseph FORET, Paris, 1957 PRINTER : Atelier Mourlot. SIGNATURE : printed in the image LIMITED : 197 copies. SIZE : 64.5...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

(after) Marino Marini - "Cavalier et cheval, orange et jaune" pochoir
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: pochoir (after the lithograph). Printed by the atelier of Daniel Jacomet, and published in Paris in 1955 by Heinz Berggruen. The image measures 5 x 3 3/4 inches (130 x 97 mm)...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph, Stencil

Dante and Beatrice - Original WATERCOLOR, Signed (Descharnes #d6970_1951)
Located in Paris, FR
Salvador Dali Divine Comedy : Dante and Beatrice, 1952 Original watercolor Signed in lower center Dated 1952 On vellum lined on thin board 42 x 30 cm (c. 17 x 12in) REFERENCES : Th...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Ink, Watercolor

Surrealist Portrait Drawing by Philadelphia Artist Leon Kelly
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Leon Kelly (American, born France, 1901-1982) Surrealist Portrait Ink on paper, 11 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches; Framed: 21 3/4 x 18 3/4 inches Signed and dated at lower right: "Leon Kelly 19...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Paper, Ink

" Two Heads " SURREALIST
Located in CANNES, FR
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963). "Two Heads " . original , signed ,dated and certified drawing by : "Jean Cocteau" has been acclaimed as one of the world's most im...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Pencil, Pen

Salvador Dali - The Wine Casks
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Salvador Dali - The Wine Casks - Original Lithograph Joseph FORET, Paris, 1957 PRINTER : Delorme. SIGNATURE : plate signed by Dali. LIMITED : Total edition of 233 SIZE : 41 x 33 cm ...
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1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Two Women, Erotic Nude Woman - Lesbian Dream - Existential Magic Realism
Located in Miami, FL
Two Women by George Tooker is a psychologically engaging portrait of contrasts. An untidy, older, overweight woman is seen slumped in a chair, asleep and lost in a dream. Her head ti...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Paper, Pencil

original ceramic pendant " Chêvre-pied & Double Masque "
Located in CANNES, FR
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) céramiques originales de Jean Cocteau . Pendentifs : "Chèvre-pied " 1958. pendentif ovale (9cm x7cm) . variante terre blanche en relief. " double masque " 1...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Ceramic

Marc Chagall - The Red Rider - Original Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Marc Chagall - Original Lithograph The Red Rider From the unsigned, unnumbered lithograph printed in the literary review XXe Siecle 1957 See Mourlot 191 Dimensions: 32 x 24 cm Publisher: G. di San Lazzaro. Marc Chagall (born in 1887) Marc Chagall was born in Belarus in 1887 and developed an early interest in art. After studying painting, in 1907 he left Russia for Paris, where he lived in an artist colony on the city’s outskirts. Fusing his own personal, dreamlike imagery with hints of the fauvism and cubism popular in France at the time, Chagall created his most lasting work—including I and the Village (1911)—some of which would be featured in the Salon des Indépendants exhibitions. After returning to Vitebsk for a visit in 1914, the outbreak of WWI trapped Chagall in Russia. He returned to France in 1923 but was forced to flee the country and Nazi persecution during WWII. Finding asylum in the U.S., Chagall became involved in set and costume design before returning to France in 1948. In his later years, he experimented with new art forms and was commissioned to produce numerous large-scale works. Chagall died in St.-Paul-de-Vence in 1985. The Village Marc Chagall was born in a small Hassidic community on the outskirts of Vitebsk, Belarus, on July 7, 1887. His father was a fishmonger, and his mother ran a small sundries shop in the village. As a child, Chagall attended the Jewish elementary school, where he studied Hebrew and the Bible, before later attending the Russian public school. He began to learn the fundamentals of drawing during this time, but perhaps more importantly, he absorbed the world around him, storing away the imagery and themes that would feature largely in most of his later work. At age 19 Chagall enrolled at a private, all-Jewish art school and began his formal education in painting, studying briefly with portrait artist Yehuda Pen. However, he left the school after several months, moving to St. Petersburg in 1907 to study at the Imperial Society for the Protection of Fine Arts. The following year, he enrolled at the Svanseva School, studying with set designer Léon Bakst, whose work had been featured in Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. This early experience would prove important to Chagall’s later career as well. Despite this formal instruction, and the widespread popularity of realism in Russia at the time, Chagall was already establishing his own personal style, which featured a more dreamlike unreality and the people, places and imagery that were close to his heart. Some examples from this period are his Window Vitebsk (1908) and My Fianceé with Black Gloves (1909), which pictured Bella Rosenfeld, to whom he had recently become engaged. The Beehive Despite his romance with Bella, in 1911 an allowance from Russian parliament member and art patron Maxim Binaver enabled Chagall to move to Paris, France. After settling briefly in the Montparnasse neighborhood, Chagall moved further afield to an artist colony known as La Ruche (“The Beehive”), where he began to work side by side with abstract painters such as Amedeo Modigliani and Fernand Léger as well as the avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire. At their urging, and under the influence of the wildly popular fauvism and cubism, Chagall lightened his palette and pushed his style ever further from reality. I and the Village (1911) and Homage to Apollinaire (1912) are among his early Parisian works, widely considered to be his most successful and representative period. Though his work stood stylistically apart from his cubist contemporaries, from 1912 to 1914 Chagall exhibited several paintings at the annual Salon des Indépendants exhibition, where works by the likes of Juan Gris, Marcel Duchamp and Robert Delaunay were causing a stir in the Paris art world. Chagall’s popularity began to spread beyond La Ruche, and in May 1914 he traveled to Berlin to help organize his first solo exhibition, at Der Sturm Gallery. Chagall remained in the city until the highly acclaimed show opened that June. He then returned to Vitebsk, unaware of the fateful events to come. War, Peace and Revolution In August 1914 the outbreak of World War I precluded Chagall’s plans to return to Paris. The conflict did little to stem the flow of his creative output, however, instead merely giving him direct access to the childhood scenes so essential to his work, as seen in paintings such as Jew in Green (1914) and Over Vitebsk (1914). His paintings from this period also occasionally featured images of the war’s impact on the region, as with Wounded Soldier (1914) and Marching (1915). But despite the hardships of life during wartime, this would also prove to be a joyful period for Chagall. In July 1915 he married Bella, and she gave birth to a daughter, Ida, the following year. Their appearance in works such as Birthday (1915), Bella and Ida by the Window (1917) and several of his “Lovers” paintings give a glimpse of the island of domestic bliss that was Chagall’s amidst the chaos. To avoid military service and stay with his new family, Chagall took a position as a clerk in the Ministry of War Economy in St. Petersburg. While there he began work on his autobiography and also immersed himself in the local art scene, befriending novelist Boris Pasternak, among others. He also exhibited his work in the city and soon gained considerable recognition. That notoriety would prove important in the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution when he was appointed as the Commissar of Fine Arts in Vitebsk. In his new post, Chagall undertook various projects in the region, including the 1919 founding of the Academy of the Arts. Despite these endeavors, differences among his colleagues eventually disillusioned Chagall. In 1920 he relinquished his position and moved his family to Moscow, the post-revolution capital of Russia. In Moscow, Chagall was soon commissioned to create sets and costumes for various productions at the Moscow State Yiddish Theater, where he would paint a series of murals titled Introduction to the Jewish Theater as well. In 1921, Chagall also found work as a teacher at a school for war orphans. By 1922, however, Chagall found that his art had fallen out of favor, and seeking new horizons he left Russia for good. Flight After a brief stay in Berlin, where he unsuccessfully sought to recover the work exhibited at Der Sturm before the war, Chagall moved his family to Paris in September 1923. Shortly after their arrival, he was commissioned by art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard to produce a series of etchings for a new edition of Nikolai Gogol's 1842 novel Dead Souls. Two years later Chagall began work on an illustrated edition of Jean de la Fontaine’s Fables, and in 1930 he created etchings for an illustrated edition of the Old Testament, for which he traveled to Palestine to conduct research. Chagall’s work during this period brought him new success as an artist and enabled him to travel throughout Europe in the 1930s. He also published his autobiography, My Life (1931), and in 1933 received a retrospective at the Kunsthalle in Basel, Switzerland. But at the same time that Chagall’s popularity was spreading, so, too, was the threat of Fascism and Nazism. Singled out during the cultural "cleansing" undertaken by the Nazis in Germany, Chagall’s work was ordered removed from museums throughout the country. Several pieces were subsequently burned, and others were featured in a 1937 exhibition of “degenerate art” held in Munich. Chagall’s angst regarding these troubling events and the persecution of Jews in general can be seen in his 1938 painting White Crucifixion. With the eruption of World War II, Chagall and his family moved to the Loire region before moving farther south to Marseilles following the invasion of France. They found a more certain refuge when, in 1941, Chagall’s name was added by the director of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City to a list of artists and intellectuals deemed most at risk from the Nazis’ anti-Jewish campaign. Chagall and his family would be among the more than 2,000 who received visas and escaped this way. Haunted Harbors Arriving in New York City in June 1941, Chagall discovered that he was already a well-known artist there and, despite a language barrier, soon became a part of the exiled European artist community. The following year he was commissioned by choreographer Léonide Massine to design sets and costumes for the ballet Aleko, based on Alexander Pushkin’s “The Gypsies” and set to the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. But even as he settled into the safety of his temporary home, Chagall’s thoughts were frequently consumed by the fate befalling the Jews of Europe and the destruction of Russia, as paintings such as The Yellow Crucifixion...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

1957 Feminist Surrealist Israeli Colorful Watercolor Painting Myriam Bat Yosef
Located in Surfside, FL
Myriam Bat-Yosef Surrealist abstract painting in colorful abstract shapes and shades in the style of Joan Miro Hand signed and dated Tel Aviv, 1957. frame measures 10 X 5.5 sheet measures 2.5 X 7 inches The envelope of the Peter Buch poster is just for provenance and is not included in this sale. Myriam Bat-Yosef, whose real name is Marion Hellerman, born on January 31 , 1931 in Berlin, Germany to a Jewish family from Lithuania, she is an Israeli-Icelandic artist who paints on papers, paintings, fabrics, objects and human beings for performances. Myriam Bat-Yosef currently lives and works in Paris. In 1933, her family fleeing the Nazi Holocaust, Myriam Bat-Yosef emigrates to Palestine and settles in Jaffa. In 1936, she suffers a family tragedy, her father, militant Zionist, is called to fight, still recovering from an operation of appendicitis. The incision will become infected, antibiotics did not exist yet, and her father will die in the hospital after 9 months of suffering. Myriam and her mother leave Palestine to live in Paris for three years. French is Myriam's first school language. In 1939, still fleeing Nazism, she returned to Palestine, leaving France by the last boat from Marseille. She moved to Tel Aviv with her mother, aunt and maternal grandmother. In 1940, she began attending the Academy of Fine Arts in Tel Aviv and took her name as an artist, Bat-Yosef, which means Joseph's daughter in Hebrew, as a tribute to her father. In 1946, Myriam graduated as a kindergarten teacher but wanted to be an artist. Her mother enrolled her in an evening school to prepare a diploma of art teacher. At 19, she performs two years of military service in Israel. In 1952, with a pension of $50 a month that her mother allocated, she went to study at the Beaux-Arts in Paris. To survive, she has several activities while studying. In 1955, she had her first solo exhibition, at the Israeli Club on Wagram Avenue in Paris. Many artists, such as Yaacov Agam, Yehuda Neiman Avigdor Arikha, Raffi Kaiser, Dani Karavan and sculptors Achiam and Shlomo Selinger attended the opening . In 1956, she enrolled at the School of Fine Arts in Florence. This is where she meets the painter Errô. They share an icy studio in winter. Myriam moves to Milan with friends. She organizes a joint exhibition with Erro, one room each, at the Montenapoleone gallery. Her works are admired by the sculptor Marino Marini and the painters Renato Birolli and Enrico Prampolini. Myriam and Erro exhibit in Rome, Milan, Florence and meet many personalities: Alain Jouffroy and his wife, the painter Manina, Roberto Matta and his wife Malitte, textile artist who was one of the founders of the Pompidou Center. Back in Paris, Myriam and Erro get married, which allows Myriam to avoid being called into the Israeli army during the Suez Canal War. In 1957, Myriam and her husband went to Iceland. Myriam works in a chocolate factory. Having enough money, she starts producing art again. She exhibited in Reykjavik's first art gallery. She meets the artist Sigridur Bjornsdottir, married to the Swiss painter Dieter Roth . In 1958, Myriam and her husband leave for Israel. They exhibit in Germany, then in Israel. Back in Paris, the couple became friends with artists of the surrealist movement, such as Victor Brauner, Hans Bellmer, the sculptor Philippe Hiquily, Liliane Lijn, future wife of Takis and photographer Nathalie Waag. Erro and Myriam have a daughter on March 15, 1960, named Tura, after the painter Cosmè Tura, but also close to the Icelandic Thora or the Hebrew Torah. Bat-Yosef’s complex trajectory throughout the 20th century is linked as much to the transnational history of what was for a time called the School of Paris as it is to a certain legacy of Surrealism. Her work features the same idea of resolving antinomies that also defined the spirit of surrealism, and is enhanced with her readings of the Kabbalah and her spiritual grounding in Taoism. However, while there are reasons for her approach to be associated with the process of the ready-made, it is important to consider the immediate intrication of these works with her practice of performance, during which the body itself is also painted – a feminist response to Yves Klein’s Anthropometries (1960) and an echo of the happenings which Jean-Jacques Lebel organised at the time in Paris. In 1963, Erró told Myriam that if she wants to be a painter, she can not be his wife. Myriam chose to be a painter and the couple divorced in 1964. Since that time, Myriam Bat-Yosef has exhibited in many countries: Europe, United States, Japan, etc. Although long in the shadows, the work of Myriam Bat-Yosef has been greeted by many artists and personalities: Anaïs Nin, Nancy Huston, André Pieyre of Mandiargues, José Pierre, René de Solier , Jacques Lacarrière, Alain Bosquet, Pierre Restany, Sarane Alexandrian and Surrealist André Breton who, after a visit to her studio, confided to having been intrigued by its phantasmagorical dimension. She was included in the book Pop Art and Beyond: Gender, Race, and Class in the Global Sixties by Mona Hadler and Kalliopi Minioudaki. Extract "World Citizen, Artist of the Pop Era Sarah Wilson; Why do we know so little of Myriam Bat-Yosef, the most important female Israeli artist of the Pop era? Issues of identity and sexuality feature constantly in her work. She exhibited internationally from Reykjavik to Tokyo; she had two shows at Arturo Schwarz’s famous Dada/surrealist gallery in Milan; she participated in feminist art events in Los Angeles. Above all, in 1971, she conceived Total Art, a Pop Gesamtkunstwerk inside and outside the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Painter, performer, and installation artist, she was also a lover, wife, and mother. Of Lithuanian-Jewish descent, she was close to the family of philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. An émigré in Paris she would repudiate a national passport, participating in Garry Davis’s short-lived “World Citizens” movement. She continues the lineage of women surrealist artists: Valentine Hugo, Leonor Fini, Dorothea Tanning, Leonora Carrington, Unica Zürn, Jane Graverol, Toyen, Alice Rahon...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Watercolor

Salvador Dali - The Atomic Era - Original Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Salvador Dali - The Atomic Era - Original Lithograph Joseph FORET, Paris, 1957 PRINTER : Atelier Mourlot. SIGNATURE : printed in the image LIMITED : 19...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled (Abstraction)
Located in Chicago, IL
A black and white, Surrealist watercolor on paper by artist Desmond McLean in a cerused black frame. McLean was born in Sligo, Ireland and raised in Brooklyn, NY. He was a professor...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Watercolor

Figures in Surrealist Landscape w Hidden Faces, Nude Woman, Architecture 1951
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Oil on canvas board. Signed and dated lower left. Unframed. Born in Mexico, Salvador de Regil came to America in the 1930s. As his artistic expression developed, he became known fo...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Untitled
Located in Lawrence, NY
Gouache on sketchbook cover Estate of Sam Esses Never afraid of trying new styles, curious and opinionated, constantly engaged with the world around him, Rolph Scarlett more than on...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Gouache

Surrealist Dream - Colors Lithograph - Signed in the Plate
Located in Paris, FR
Yves Tanguy (1900-1955) Surrealist dream Lithograph in colors, 1953 Signed and dated in the plate On paper size 47.5 x 42.5 cm (c. 19 x 17 in) Printed in the famous Mourlot workshop...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Jean Cocteau - Poets - Original Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Original Lithograph by Jean Cocteau Title: Poets Signed in the plate Dimensions: 50 x 35 cm Jean Cocteau Writer, artist and film director Jean Cocteau was one of the most influenti...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Daliean Prophesy, Salvador Dali
Located in Fairfield, CT
Title: Dalinean Prophecy Year: 1975 Medium: Engraving with pochoir on Arches paper Edition: 250 Arabic Numerals on Arches paper, 250 (I = International) Arabic Numerals on Rives paper, 75 Roman Numerals on Japon paper, 25 Roman Numeral proofs (EAs) on Japon paper, and 5 Roman Numeral proofs (HCs) on Japon paper. Size: 22.25 x 30.25 inches Condition: Excellent Inscription: Signed and numbered by the artist. Notes: Published by Merrill Chase Publishing Associates. Albert Field Catalog Reference #: 75-13. SALVADOR DALI (1904-1989) Salvador Dali's work is associated with the surrealist movement of the 20th Century. A diverse and multi-talented artist, Dali is considered one of the most collected artists today, and his works offer an incredible opportunity for enormous appreciation in value. In addition to his original works, Dali produced works on paper for reproduction using dry point, etching, woodcut, and lithography. Many of his works are held in prestigious private and public collections world...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Engraving

Salvador Dali - The Vision - Original Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Salvador Dali - The Vision - Original Lithograph Joseph FORET, Paris, 1957 PRINTER : Detruit. SIGNATURE : plate signed by Dali. LIMITED : 233 copies. SIZE : 41 x 33 cm REFERENCES ...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled XVIII (Le Tricorne)
Located in Boston, MA
Artist: Dali, Salvador Title: Untitled XVIII (Le Tricorne) Series: Le Tricorne (The Three-Pointed Hat) Date: 1959 Medium: Wood engraving Framed Dimensions: 18.25" x 15.75" Signature: Unsigned Edition: 24/30 Literature: AF 20...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Engraving

Untitled XIX (Le Tricorne)
Located in Boston, MA
Artist: Dali, Salvador Title: Untitled XIX (Le Tricorne) Series: Le Tricorne (The Three-Pointed Hat) Date: 1959 Medium: Wood engraving Framed Dimensions: 20" x 17.5" Signature: Unsigned Edition: /30 Literature: AF 20...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Engraving

Joan Miro Le Chien Aboyant a La Lune
Located in Washington, DC
Artist: Joan Miro Title: Le Chien Aboyant a La Lune "Barking Dog" Portfolio: Verve Vol VII No. 27-28 Medium: Lithograph Year: 1953 Edition: 6000 Framed Size: 21 1/2" x 28 1/4 Sheet S...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled VII (Le Tricorne)
Located in Boston, MA
Artist: Dali, Salvador Title: Untitled VII (Le Tricorne) Series: Le Tricorne (The Three-Pointed Hat) Date: 1959 Medium: Wood engraving Framed Dimensions: 20" x 17.5" Signature: Unsigned Edition: 24/30 Literature: AF 20...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Engraving

Untitled V (Le Tricorne)
Located in Boston, MA
Artist: Dali, Salvador Title: Untitled V (Le Tricorne) Series: Le Tricorne (The Three-Pointed Hat) Date: 1959 Medium: Wood engraving Framed Dimensions: 20" x 17.5" Signature: Unsigned Edition: 24/30 Literature: AF 20...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Engraving

Untitled II (Le Tricorne)
Located in Boston, MA
Artist: Dali, Salvador Title: Untitled II (Le Tricorne) Series: Le Tricorne (The Three-Pointed Hat) Date: 1959 Medium: Wood engraving Framed Dimensions: 20" x 17.5" Signature: Unsigned Edition: 24/30 Literature: AF 20...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Engraving

Untitled XI (Le Tricorne)
Located in Boston, MA
Artist: Dali, Salvador Title: Untitled XI (Le Tricorne) Series: Le Tricorne (The Three-Pointed Hat) Date: 1959 Medium: Wood engraving Framed Dimensions: 18.25" x 15.75" Signature: Unsigned Edition: 24/30 Literature: AF 20
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Engraving

Salvador Dali - Apparition de Dulcinée - Original Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Salvador Dali - Apparition de Dulcinée - Original Lithograph Joseph FORET, Paris, 1957 SIGNATURE : printed in the image LIMITED : 197 copies. SIZE : 41 x 33 cm REFERENCES : Field 57...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled VI (Le Tricorne)
Located in Boston, MA
Artist: Dali, Salvador Title: Untitled VI (Le Tricorne) Series: Le Tricorne (The Three-Pointed Hat) Date: 1959 Medium: Wood engraving Framed Dimensions: 20" x 17.5" Signature: Unsigned Edition: 24/30 Literature: AF 20
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Engraving

After Pablo Picasso - Peace Circle - Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
After PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) Peace Circle Dimensions: 65 x 50 cm Signed and dated in the plate Edition Succession Picasso, Paris. Editions de la Paix Picasso is not just a man and his work. Picasso is always a legend, indeed almost a myth. In the public view he has long since been the personification of genius in modern art. Picasso is an idol, one of those rare creatures who act as crucibles in which the diverse and often chaotic phenomena of culture are focused, who seem to body forth the artistic life of their age in one person. The same thing happens in politics, science, sport. And it happens in art. Early life Born in Malaga, Spain, in October of 1881, he was the first child born in the family. His father worked as an artist, and was also a professor at the school of fine arts; he also worked as a curator for the museum in Malaga. Pablo Picasso studied under his father for one year, then went to the Academy of Arts for one year, prior to moving to Paris. In 1901 he went to Paris, which he found as the ideal place to practice new styles, and experiment with a variety of art forms. It was during these initial visits, which he began his work in surrealism and cubism style, which he was the founder of, and created many distinct pieces which were influenced by these art forms. Updates in style During his stay in Paris, Pablo Picasso was constantly updating his style; he did work from the blue period, the rose period, African influenced style, to cubism, surrealism, and realism. Not only did he master these styles, he was a pioneer in each of these movements, and influenced the styles to follow throughout the 20th century, from the initial works he created. In addition to the styles he introduced to the art world, he also worked through the many different styles which appeared, while working in Paris. Not only did he continually improve his style, and the works he created, he is well known because of the fact that he had the ability to create in any style which was prominent during the time. Russian ballet In 1917, Pablo Picasso joined the Russian Ballet, which toured in Rome; during this time he met Olga Khoklova, who was a ballerina; the couple eventually wed in 1918, upon returning to Paris. The couple eventually separated in 1935; Olga came from nobility, and an upper class lifestyle, while Pablo Picasso led a bohemian lifestyle, which conflicted. Although the couple separated, they remained officially married, until Olga's death, in 1954. In addition to works he created of Olga, many of his later pieces also took a centralized focus on his two other love interests, Marie Theresa...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Abstract Composition - Woodcut - 1950s
Located in Roma, IT
Abstract Composition is a woodcut print on paper realized by an Anonymous artist in the 1950s. Hand-signed, illegible, and numbered, edition of 50/100 prints. Good conditions. The...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Woodcut

Cosmicstrip I, Aquatint Etching by Roberto Matta
Located in Long Island City, NY
Cosmicstrip I by Roberto Matta, Chilean (1911–2002) Date: 1959 Etching, signed and numbered in pencil Edition of 21/50 Image Size: 14.75 x 19.25 inches Frame Size: 23.75 x 28 inches ...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Etching, Aquatint

Pablo Picasso Terracotta Fish Pitcher Madoura Pottery Sujet Poisson France 1952
Located in Portland, OR
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), terracotta fish pitcher. Madoura pottery 1952. This original terracotta fish pitcher was created by Picasso in 1952 and was ...
Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Terracotta

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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