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Surrealist Art

8,894 Results
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
"Lily 1" Abstract Figurative Photography 39" x 39" in Ed. 1/3 by Olha Stepanian
"Lily 1" Abstract Figurative Photography 39" x 39" in Ed. 1/3 by Olha Stepanian

"Lily 1" Abstract Figurative Photography 39" x 39" in Ed. 1/3 by Olha Stepanian

By Olha Stepanian

Located in Culver City, CA

"Lily 1" Abstract Figurative Photography 39" x 39" in Ed. 1/3 by Olha Stepanian Printed on Epson Professional Paper Signed and numbered by the artist Comes with COA issued by the ar...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Art

Materials

Photographic Paper

Don't Let Us Fade Away - Original Colorful Mixed Media Surrealist Landscape Art
Don't Let Us Fade Away - Original Colorful Mixed Media Surrealist Landscape Art

Don't Let Us Fade Away - Original Colorful Mixed Media Surrealist Landscape Art

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Robert Lebsack creates artworks using mixed media with ink, acrylic, and charcoal on archival copies of newspapers, textbooks, and sheet music. As a visionary artist, Lebsack weaves ...

Category

2010s Surrealist Art

Materials

Paper, Charcoal, Ink, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel

Centre Noeuds (Sabatier 393), Roberto Matta
Centre Noeuds (Sabatier 393), Roberto Matta

Centre Noeuds (Sabatier 393), Roberto Matta

By Roberto Matta

Located in Fairfield, CT

Artist: Roberto Matta (1912-2002) Title: Centre Noeuds (Sabatier 393) Year: 1974 Edition: 38/125, plus proofs Medium: Etching on Arches paper Size: 23.875 x 17.5 inches Inscription: ...

Category

1970s Surrealist Art

Materials

Etching

Les Chants de Maldoror
Les Chants de Maldoror

Les Chants de Maldoror

By Salvador Dalí­

Located in New York, NY

Heliogravure, etching, and drypoint, 1934. From the deluxe edition of 40 with the drypoint remarqué, before the published edition of 100 printed from the reduced plate. From the po...

Category

20th Century Surrealist Art

Materials

Etching, Drypoint

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

Art Deco Embossed Serigraph Print by Erte, 1991, Boudoir
Art Deco Embossed Serigraph Print by Erte, 1991, Boudoir

Art Deco Embossed Serigraph Print by Erte, 1991, Boudoir

By Erté

Located in Washington, DC

Artist: Erté Title: Boudoir Medium: Embossed serigraph Year: 1991 Edition: 290/300 Sheet Size: 41 3/4" x 29 1/4" Image Size: 35 1/4" x 23 1/4" Signature: Stamped signature

Category

1990s Surrealist Art

Materials

Screen

(after) Julio Gonzalez - "Personnage virulent" lithograph

(after) Julio Gonzalez - "Personnage virulent" lithograph

By Julio González 1

Located in Henderson, NV

Medium: lithograph (after the watercolor). Printed in Paris in 1957 by Mourlot and published by the Galerie Berggruen for a rare catalogue. Size: 7 1/4 x 4 1/2 inches (183 x 113 mm)....

Category

1950s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Symbol of Love - 21st Century, Contemporary, Figurative Portrait, Africa, Couple
Symbol of Love - 21st Century, Contemporary, Figurative Portrait, Africa, Couple

Symbol of Love - 21st Century, Contemporary, Figurative Portrait, Africa, Couple

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 (Issued by the Gal...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Art

Materials

Canvas, Charcoal, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Nadine's Bookcase
Nadine's Bookcase

Nadine's Bookcase

By Fanny Brennan

Located in New York, NY

Created by Surrealist Fanny Brennan from 1992-96, Nadine's Bookcase is a lithograph in colors on wove paper. Hand-monogrammed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 250, the artw...

Category

Late 20th Century Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

TIE Fighter Beatles Large Oversize Pop Art Print Signed Limited Edition
TIE Fighter Beatles Large Oversize Pop Art Print Signed Limited Edition

TIE Fighter Beatles Large Oversize Pop Art Print Signed Limited Edition

By BATIK

Located in London, GB

TIE Fighter Beatles by B A T I K Pop art work featuring the Fab Four Paul McCartney , George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon running away from Star Wars TIE fighters chasing...

Category

2010s Surrealist Art

Materials

Black and White, Archival Pigment

Turtle (Comanche Native American surrealist painting)
Turtle (Comanche Native American surrealist painting)

Turtle (Comanche Native American surrealist painting)

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Turtle, ca. 1975-80. Gouache on Arches rag paper, Sheet measures 23 x 30 inches. Image measures 22 x 29 inches. Signed lower left. Excellent condition. Unframed.

Category

1970s Surrealist Art

Materials

Gouache, Rag Paper

Antique French Modern Paris School Still Life Framed Surreal Oil Painting
Antique French Modern Paris School Still Life Framed Surreal Oil Painting

Antique French Modern Paris School Still Life Framed Surreal Oil Painting

Located in Buffalo, NY

Finely painted modernist still life oil painting with a view of the Eiffel Tower and a rotary phone. Oil on canvas. Framed. Measuring 20 by 23 inches overall and 15.25 by 18.25 paint...

Category

1920s Surrealist Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Les Chiens Ont Soif VII, Surrealist Lithograph by Max Ernst
Les Chiens Ont Soif VII, Surrealist Lithograph by Max Ernst

Les Chiens Ont Soif VII, Surrealist Lithograph by Max Ernst

By Max Ernst

Located in Long Island City, NY

Max Ernst, German (1891 - 1976) - Les Chiens Ont Soif VII, Portfolio: Les Chiens Ont Soif, Year: 1964, Medium: Lithograph, Edition: 165/320, Size: 17 x 24.5 in. (43.18 x 62.23 c...

Category

1960s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Flora Dalinae Lilium Musicum
Flora Dalinae Lilium Musicum

Flora Dalinae Lilium Musicum

By Salvador Dalí­

Located in Hollywood, FL

ARTIST: Salvador Dali TITLE: Flora Dalinae Lilium Musicum MEDIUM: Etching SIGNED: Hand Signed EDITION NUMBER: 26/200 MEASUREMENTS: 30.25" x 22" YEAR: 1968 FRAMED: No CONDITI...

Category

1960s Surrealist Art

Materials

Etching

Max Ernst Dada Surrealist Hand Signed Lithograph Poster for a Jewish Museum
Max Ernst Dada Surrealist Hand Signed Lithograph Poster for a Jewish Museum

Max Ernst Dada Surrealist Hand Signed Lithograph Poster for a Jewish Museum

By Max Ernst

Located in Surfside, FL

Max Ernst (German, American, 1891-1976) Color lithograph Titled, "Poster For The Jewish Museum" 1966 Hand signed lower right Hand numbered HC I/XVII Dimensions: 34.75 x 28.5 sight 25 X 19.25 Max Ernst (German 1891 – 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic training, but his experimental attitude toward the making of art resulted in his invention of frottage—a technique that uses pencil rubbings of textured objects and relief surfaces to create images—and grattage, an analogous technique in which paint is scraped across canvas to reveal the imprints of the objects placed beneath. Max Ernst showed for the first time in 1912 at the Galerie Feldman in Cologne. At the Sonderbund exhibition of that year in Cologne he saw the work of Paul Cezanne, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. In 1913 he met Guillaume Apollinaire and Robert Delaunay and traveled to Paris. Ernst participated that same year in the Erste deutsche Herbstsalon. In 1914 he met Jean Arp in Cologne who was to become a lifelong friend. In 1921 Ernst exhibited at the Galerie au Sans Pareil in Paris. He was involved in Surrealist activities in the early 1920s with Paul Eluard and André Breton. His work was exhibited that year together with that of the Das Junge Rheinland group, at Galerie Feldman in Cologne, and then in several group exhibitions in 1913. In his paintings of this period, Ernst adopted an ironic style that juxtaposed grotesque elements alongside Cubist and Expressionist motifs. Ernst fought in world war I. Several German Expressionist painters died in action during the war, among them August Macke and Franz Marc. In 1918, Ernst was demobilised and returned to Cologne. He soon married art history student Luise Straus, of Jewish ancestry, whom he had met in 1914. In 1919, he visited Paul Klee in Munich and studied paintings by Giorgio de Chirico. In the same year, inspired by de Chirico and mail-order catalogues, teaching-aide manuals and similar sources, he produced his first collage works (notably Fiat modes, a portfolio of lithographs), a technique which later dominated his artistic pursuits. Also in 1919, Ernst, social activist Johannes Theodor Baargeld and several colleagues founded the Cologne Dada group. In 1919–20, Ernst and Baargeld published various short-lived magazines such as Der Strom, die Schammade and organised Dada exhibitions. Ernst and Luise's son Ulrich Jimmy Ernst was born on 24 June 1920; he later would also become a painter. In 1921, he met Paul Éluard, who became a lifelong friend. Éluard bought two of Ernst's paintings (Celebes and Oedipus Rex) and selected six collages to illustrate his poetry collection Répétitions. A year later the two collaborated on Les malheurs des immortels and then with André Breton, whom Ernst met in 1921, on the magazine Littérature. Ernst developed a fascination with birds which was prevalent in his work. His alter ego in paintings, which he called Loplop, was a bird. He suggested that this alter-ego was an extension of himself stemming from an early confusion of birds and humans. In 1927, he married Marie-Berthe Aurenche and it is thought his relationship with her may have inspired the erotic subject matter of The Kiss and other works of that year. He collaborated with Joan Miro on designs for Sergei Diaghilev Ballet that same year. The following year the artist collaborated with Salvador Dali and the Surrealist Luis Bunuel on the film L'Age d'or. His first American show was held at the Julien Levy Gallery, New York, in 1932. In 1936 Ernst was represented in Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Ernst began to sculpt in 1934 and spent time with Alberto Giacometti. In 1938, the American heiress and artistic patron Peggy Guggenheim acquired a number of Max Ernst's works, which she displayed in her new gallery in London. Ernst and Guggenheim were married from 1942 to 1946. In September 1939, the outbreak of World War II caused Ernst, being German, to be interned as an "undesirable foreigner" in Camp des Milles, near Aix-en-Provence, along with fellow surrealist, Hans Bellmer, who had recently emigrated to Paris. He had been living with his lover and fellow surrealist painter, Leonora Carrington who, not knowing whether he would return, saw no option but to sell their house to repay their debts and leave for Spain. Thanks to the intercession of Paul Éluard and other friends, including the journalist Varian Fry, he was released a few weeks later. Soon after the German occupation of France, he was arrested again, this time by the Gestapo, but managed to escape to America with the help of Fry and Peggy Guggenheim, a member of a wealthy American art collecting family. Ernst and Peggy Guggenheim arrived in the United States in 1941 and were married at the end of the year. Along with other artists and friends (Marcel Duchamp and Marc Chagall) who had fled from the war and lived in New York City, Ernst helped inspire the development of abstract expressionism. His marriage to Guggenheim did not last. In October 1946 he married American surrealist painter Dorothea Tanning in a double ceremony with Man Ray and Juliet P. Browner in Beverly Hills, California. The couple made their home in Sedona, Arizona from 1946 to 1953. He and Tanning hosted intellectuals and European artists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Yves Tanguy. Sedona proved an inspiration for the artists and for Ernst, who compiled his book Beyond Painting and completed his sculptural masterpiece Capricorn while living in Sedona. As a result of the book and its publicity, Ernst began to achieve financial success. From the 1950s he lived mainly in France. In 1954 he was awarded the Grand Prize for painting at the Venice Biennale. In 2005, "Max Ernst: A Retrospective" opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Contemporary artist tapestries have had their true believers. He produced a tapestry for Gloria Ross...

Category

1960s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

original etching

original etching

Located in Henderson, NV

Medium: original etching. Printed in Paris by Lacourière and published by Pierre à Feu and Maeght Editeur for the Marcel Duchamp / André Breton project Surréalisme en 1947. Issued in...

Category

1940s Surrealist Art

Materials

Etching

original lithograph

original lithograph

By Max Ernst

Located in Henderson, NV

Medium: original lithograph. Catalogue reference Spies/Leppien 202. Published in 1971 by XXe Siecle. Sheet size: 12 1/4 x 9 3/8 inches (310 x 238 mm). Not signed.

Category

1970s Surrealist Art

Materials

Lithograph

Woman Standing, Surrealist Woodcut by Ponce
Woman Standing, Surrealist Woodcut by Ponce

Woman Standing, Surrealist Woodcut by Ponce

Located in Long Island City, NY

Ponce - Woman Standing, Year: 1981, Medium: Woodcut on Arches, signed, numbered and dated in pencil, Edition: 1/15, Image Size: 11.25 x 7 inches, Size: 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.94...

Category

1980s Surrealist Art

Materials

Woodcut

Lithographs II (1046), Surrealist Lithography by Joan Miro

Lithographs II (1046), 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

In Memory of Dante Figurative Surrealism Original oil Painting
In Memory of Dante Figurative Surrealism Original oil Painting

In Memory of Dante Figurative Surrealism Original oil Painting

By Ashot Yan

Located in Granada Hills, CA

Figurative Surrealism Original Painting Artist: Ashot Yan Work: Original Oil Painting, Handmade Artwork, One of a Kind Medium: Oil on Linen, Year: 2023 Style: Portrait Surrealism, T...

Category

2010s Surrealist Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mr and Mrs Woodman : Shared Joy - Original signed silver print
Mr and Mrs Woodman : Shared Joy - Original signed silver print

Mr and Mrs Woodman : Shared Joy - Original signed silver print

By Man Ray

Located in Paris, IDF

MAN RAY (Emmanuel Radnitsky, known as) (1890–1976) Mr. and Mrs. Woodman (Shared Joy), 1970 Photograph: Original silver print Artist’s signature stamp on the reverse On silver paper,...

Category

1970s Surrealist Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Mr and Mrs Woodman : The Horsewoman - Original signed silver print
Mr and Mrs Woodman : The Horsewoman - Original signed silver print

Mr and Mrs Woodman : The Horsewoman - Original signed silver print

By Man Ray

Located in Paris, IDF

MAN RAY (Emmanuel Radnitsky, known as) (1890–1976) Mr. and Mrs. Woodman (The Horsewoman), 1970 Photograph: Original silver print Artist’s signature stamp on the reverse On silver pa...

Category

1970s Surrealist Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

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.