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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
Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland

By Salvador Dalí­

Located in Hollywood, FL

ARTIST: Salvador Dali TITLE: Alice in Wonderland MEDIUM: Etching SIGNED: Hand Signed PUBLISHER: Transworld Art EDITION NUMBER: A IX/XL PAPER: Japon Paper MEASUREMENTS: 29.75"...

Category

1970s Surrealist Art

Materials

Etching

Ruth Gleaner - Lithograph by Marc Chagall - 1960
Ruth Gleaner - Lithograph by Marc Chagall - 1960

Ruth Gleaner - Lithograph by Marc Chagall - 1960

By Marc Chagall

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...

Category

1960s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Surrealist Still Life with a Guitar
Surrealist Still Life with a Guitar

Surrealist Still Life with a Guitar

Located in San Francisco, CA

When you enter visually into the sumptuous scene captured in this painting, the unknown artist is playing with you. They are teasing you to slightly suspend your careful awareness of...

Category

1940s Surrealist Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Priscilla At Dusk - 21st Century, Surrealism, Africa Woman with Guitar, Musical
Priscilla At Dusk - 21st Century, Surrealism, Africa Woman with Guitar, Musical

Priscilla At Dusk - 21st Century, Surrealism, Africa Woman with Guitar, Musical

By Aladejare Ayodeji

Located in Ibadan, Oyo

Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube from Nigeria This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. About Artist Bor...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Pablo Picasso, "Face Turned Pitcher, " ceramic
Pablo Picasso, "Face Turned Pitcher, " ceramic

Pablo Picasso, "Face Turned Pitcher, " ceramic

By Pablo Picasso

Located in Chatsworth, CA

This piece is an A.R. turned pitcher created by Pablo Picasso in 1955. It is made with white earthenware clay, decoration in engobes in red and black with glaze inside. It bears the ...

Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Clay

Acrobat, Surrealist Etching by James Kearns
Acrobat, Surrealist Etching by James Kearns

Acrobat, Surrealist Etching by James Kearns

By James Kearns

Located in Long Island City, NY

James Kearns, American (1924 - ) - Acrobat, Year: circa 1975, Medium: Etching on Rives, signed, titled and numbered, Edition: 44/50, Image Size: 14.5 x 8.75 inches, Size: 22 x 15 i...

Category

1970s Surrealist Art

Materials

Etching

Lithographs II (1045), Surrealist Lithography by Joan Miro

Lithographs II (1045), Surrealist Lithography by Joan Miro

By Joan Miró

Located in Long Island City, NY

Joan Miro was a Spanish Surrealist artist, world-renowned for his unique art style that blended surrealist fantasy and modern life. This lithograph is part of the series "Lithographs...

Category

1970s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Armando Villagran Original Painting
Armando Villagran Original Painting

Armando Villagran Original Painting

By Armando Villagran

Located in San Francisco, CA

Armando Villagran (Mexican, 1945-1995) Untitled (Figure with Animal), 1991 Oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right Canvas: 55"h x 43.5"w, overall (with frame): 56"h x 44"w Born ...

Category

1990s Surrealist Art

Materials

Oil

Wifredo Lam, Untitled, from Ediciones Poligrafa, 1979
Wifredo Lam, Untitled, from Ediciones Poligrafa, 1979

Wifredo Lam, Untitled, from Ediciones Poligrafa, 1979

By Wifredo Lam

Located in Southampton, NY

This exquisite lithograph by Wifredo Lam (1902–1982), titled Sin titulo (Untitled), from the album Ediciones Poligrafa, Barcelona - Redfern Gallery, London, originates from the 1979 ...

Category

1970s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Salvador Dali "Narcissus (Phones)" Etching, 1972
Salvador Dali "Narcissus (Phones)" Etching, 1972

Salvador Dali "Narcissus (Phones)" Etching, 1972

By Salvador Dalí­

Located in Astoria, NY

Salvador Dali (Spanish, 1904-1989), "Narcissus Telephonans Inondis" [Narcissus Uses the Phones], Etching and Heliogravure in Colors on Arches Paper, 1972, from the "Florals (Surreali...

Category

1970s Surrealist Art

Materials

Paper, Etching, Photogravure

Joan Miro, Figures, from Cardboards 1959–1965, 1965 (after)
Joan Miro, Figures, from Cardboards 1959–1965, 1965 (after)

Joan Miro, Figures, from Cardboards 1959–1965, 1965 (after)

By Joan Miró

Located in Southampton, NY

This exquisite lithograph and pochoir after Joan Miro (1893–1983), titled Personnages (Figures), from the album Miro, Cartones 1959–1965 (Miro, Cardboards 1959–1965), originates from...

Category

1960s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Drue
Drue

Drue

By Leonora Carrington

Located in Columbia, MO

Leonora Carrington (British-Mexican 1917 - 2011) was a painter, writer, and key figure in Surrealism whose work explored the sacred, the mystical, and the magical in everyday life. B...

Category

20th Century Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled
Untitled

Untitled

By Wifredo Lam

Located in Long Island City, NY

Artist: Wifredo Lam, Cuban (1902 - 1982) Title: Untitled - I Year: 1957 Medium: Crayon and Pastel on Paper, signed and dated l.r. Paper Size: 22 in. x 26.5 in. (55.88 cm x 67.31...

Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Paper, Crayon, Pastel

"Hombre contemplando la luna" original etching
"Hombre contemplando la luna" original etching

"Hombre contemplando la luna" original etching

By Rufino Tamayo

Located in Henderson, NV

Medium: original etching and aquatint. Printed in 1947 on Velin de Hollande paper and published in New York by the Quadrangle Press as the frontispiece of the deluxe edition of Rober...

Category

1940s Surrealist Art

Materials

Etching, Aquatint

Untitled Micro-Gestalt H4

Untitled Micro-Gestalt H4

By Airom

Located in Santa Monica, CA

Acrylic and ink on canvas

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Art

Materials

Canvas, Ink, Acrylic

Space Time - Original handsigned lithograph
Space Time - Original handsigned lithograph

Space Time - Original handsigned lithograph

By Jean Allemand

Located in Paris, IDF

Jean Allemand Space Time Original lithograph Handsigned in pencil Limited /275 copies On vellum 76 x 56 cm (c. 29.9 x 22 in) Excellent condition

Category

Late 20th Century Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Newcomer, Portrait Surrealism Original oil Painting
Newcomer, Portrait Surrealism Original oil Painting

Newcomer, Portrait Surrealism Original oil Painting

By Ashot Yan

Located in Granada Hills, CA

Portrait Surrealism Original Painting Artist: Ashot Yan Work: Original Oil Painting, Handmade Artwork, One of a Kind Medium: Oil on Linen, Year: 2019 Style: Portrait Surrealism, Tit...

Category

2010s Surrealist Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'Early Marshes' — Mid-Century Surrealism, Atelier 17
'Early Marshes' — Mid-Century Surrealism, Atelier 17

'Early Marshes' — Mid-Century Surrealism, Atelier 17

By Ian Hugo

Located in Myrtle Beach, SC

Ian Hugo, 'Early Marshes', from the portfolio 'Ten Engravings'. engraving, 1943, edition 50. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '37/50' in pencil. A fine impression, with delicate overall plate tone, on cream wove paper, the full sheet with margins (2 5/8 to 7 inches), in excellent condition. With the blind stamp 'madeleine-claude jobrack EDITIONS', in the bottom right margin. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 5 x 5 7/8 inches (127 x 149 mm); sheet size 15 x 11 inches (381 x 279 mm). Ian Hugo originally created "Ten Engravings" in 1945 and the portfolio included a foreword by his partner and collaborator, Anais Nin. In 1978, Hugo republished the portfolio with Madeleine-Claude Jobrack, an American master printmaker who studied under Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17, Paris, and with Johnny Friedlaender. When Jobrack returned to the States she managed the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Studio in New York before opening her own printing studio, Madeleine-Claude Jobrak Editions. “The sign of the true artist is one who creates a complete universe, invents new plants, new animals, new figures to transfer to us a new vision of the universe in which dream and reality fuse. Ian Hugo's plants have eyes, the birds have the delicacy of dragonflies, their feathers have the shape of fans. Humor is apparent in every gesture. He uses a fine spider web to give a feeling of flight, speed, lightness. The body of a woman reveals the structure of a leaf, a plant. Wings are moving in a world unified by mythological themes. This is an animated world, humorous and levitating, elusive and decorative, which by its unique forms and shapes gives us the sensation of a rebirth, a liberation from the usual, the familiar, a visit to a new planet.” —Anais Nin, from the forward to the portfolio ‘Ten Engravings’ ABOUT THE ARTIST Ian Hugo was born Hugh Parker Guiler in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 15, 1898. His childhood was spent in Puerto Rico—a "tropical paradise," the memory of which stayed with him and surfaced in both his engravings and his films. He attended school in Scotland and graduated from Columbia University where he studied economics and literature. Hugo was working with the National City Bank when he met and married author Anais Nin in 1923. The couple moved to Paris the following year, where Nin's diary and Guiler's artistic aspirations flowered. Guiler feared his business associates would not understand his interests in art and music, let alone those of his wife, so he began a second, creative life as Ian Hugo. Ian and Anais moved to New York in 1939. The following year he took up engraving and etching, working at Stanley William Hayter’s experimental printmaking workshop Atelier 17, established at the New School for Social Research. Hugo began producing surreal images often used to illustrate Nin's books. For Nin, his unwavering love and financial support were indispensable—Hugo was the "fixed center, core... my home, my refuge" (Sept. 16, 1937, Nearer the Moon, The Unexpurgated Diary of Anais Nin, 1937-!939). Fictionalized portraits of Higo and Nin appear in Philip Kaufman's 1990 film drama of a literary love triangle, Henry & June. Inspired by comments that viewers saw motion in his engravings, Hugo took up filmmaking. He asked the avant-garde filmmaker Sasha Hammid for instruction but was told, "Use the camera yourself, make your own mistakes, make your own style." Hugo embarked on an exploration of the film medium as a vehicle to delve into his dreams, his unconscious, and his memories. Without a specific plan, He would collect resonant images, then reorder or superimpose them, seeking a sense of self-connection through the poetic juxtapositions he created. These intuitive explorations resembled the mystical evocations of his engravings, which he described in 1946 as "hieroglyphs of a language in which our unconscious is trying to convey important, urgent messages." In the underwater world of his film ‘Bells of Atlantis,’ the light originates from the world above the surface; it is otherworldly, out of place, yet essential. In ‘Jazz of Lights,’ the street lights of Times Square become in Nin's words, "an ephemeral flow of sensations." This flow that she also calls "phantasmagorical" had a crucial impact on Stan Brakhage, who said that without Jazz of Lights (1954), "there would have been no Anticipation of the Night" his autobiographical film which ushered in a new era of experimental modernist filmmaking. Hugo lived the last two decades of his life in a New York apartment high above street level. In the evenings, surrounded by an electrically illuminated man...

Category

1940s Surrealist Art

Materials

Engraving

For Alberti, For Spain! - Etching by Joan Mirò - 1975
For Alberti, For Spain! - Etching by Joan Mirò - 1975

For Alberti, For Spain! - Etching by Joan Mirò - 1975

By Joan Miró

Located in Roma, IT

For Alberti, For Spain!  it's an original artwork realized by Joan Mirò in 1975. Etching,  90 x 66 cm.  Hand signed. Edition 50/90. Reference: Dupin 926 Printed on Fabriano paper...

Category

1970s Surrealist Art

Materials

Etching

Le Lèzard aux Plumes d'Or - Lithograph - 1971
Le Lèzard aux Plumes d'Or - Lithograph - 1971

Le Lèzard aux Plumes d'Or - Lithograph - 1971

By Joan Miró

Located in Roma, IT

Le Lézard aux Plumes d'Or is a beautiful and rare color lithograph on Jason Kochi paper, realized in 1971 by the Spanish Surrealist artist Joan Miró (Montroing, 1893 - Mallorca, 19...

Category

1970s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

"The Moon" original lithograph

"The Moon" original lithograph

By André Masson

Located in Henderson, NV

Medium: original lithograph. Printed in 1938 and published in Paris by Teriade for the art revue Verve (volume 1, number 2). Andre Masson was invited to contribute an original compos...

Category

1930s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Venus, Oil Painting
Venus, Oil Painting

Venus, Oil Painting

By Miranda Gamel

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Inspired by the classical painting, The Birth of Venus, artist Miranda Gamel shows a surrealist portrayal. The subject stands beautifully with long wavy hair and glistening eyes under a turquoise moon...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Art

Materials

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.