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Surrealism

Photography

Clever Surrealist Photographs That Evoke Man Ray’s Witty Spirit

By Tom Hawking on

Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of surrealism is that it was funny. For all that the eyeball-slicing of Un Chien Andalou and the nightmarish dreamscapes of Salvador Dalí’s paintings are singularly disconcerting, the movement also had an endearingly quirky sense of humor — one that’s echoed in these playfully surrealist black-and-white pictures at Faith is Torment. They evoke the spirit of Man Ray, juxtaposing the mundane and the bizarre in ways that are both striking and amusing: a spoon casts the shadow of a fork, a ladder leads into a mirror, plates sit stacked in the grating that covers a street drain. They’re the work of Spanish photographer Jose Maria Rodriguez Madoz, who goes by the name Chema Madoz. Click through for a selection of his wittiest and most imaginative images.
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Art

The 10 Most Surreal Moments of Surrealism

By Kyle Chayka on

It must have been fun to be a Surrealist. The movement, which arose in the 1920s and was given its raison d’etre by Andre Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto, embraced the subconscious in all its weirdness, allowing the mind to flow where it will and finding joy in random, strange juxtapositions and aesthetic combinations. Comte de Lautreamont once wrote that Surrealism is “as beautiful as the chance encounter of an umbrella and a sewing machine on an operating table,” a fittingly off-the-wall metaphor for one of art history’s wackiest movements. Here, we’ve pulled together the 10 most surreal moments of Surrealism, a collection of bizarre gallery installations, weird paintings, and crazy parties that might inspire some new adventures in subconscious exploration. … Read More

Art

Altered Postcards from the Belle Époque Featuring French Nudes and Comical Monsters

By Paul Laster on

Turning penny postcards of erotic nudes into surrealist fantasies, artist and poet George Hugnet painted a magical series of strange creatures caressing sensual, young women more than 60 years ago that continues to astonish us today. The lecherous beasts that make up The Love Life of the Spumifiers wrap themselves around passive lovers like sci-fi film characters about to suck the life out of unsuspecting souls. In actuality, the spumifers are more gentle and cartoon-like than menacing.

Hugnet — who collaborated with Picasso, Duchamp, Miró, Gertrude Stein and other icons of the era throughout his career — painted some 40 of these trippy images in 1947-48 and added poetic descriptions of each bizarre being’s lovemaking skills in the 1960s. Hidden from view for decades, New York’s Ubu Gallery recently showed the wildly wacky works and simultaneously published a brochure of the titillating texts. Ludicrously titled — with such species names as The Frosted Quaggle, The Pond Archgoolie, and The Lecherous Yackle — these crazy critters seem set to inspire a new generation of artists, writers, and animators — both on paper and on the silver screen. Click through the humorous images below to view a selection of our favorite beasts. … Read More

Design

Minimalist Poster Odes to Famous Art Movements

By Caroline Stanley on

If you were a fan of the minimalist posters that paid tribute to iconic painters that we featured back in July, then you’re likely to enjoy a similar project by French graphic designer Outmane Amahou that we just spotted on Design Taxi. Instead of focusing on the work of individual artists, Amahou decided to tackle entire movements in his very ambitious series. Click through our slideshow for a selection of what he came up with, and if your apartment could use a clever touch of art history on its walls, grab a print of your favorite poster over on Society6. … Read More

Art

Surreal Photos of Sleeping, Floating Figures in Contemporary Dream Worlds

By Alison Nastasi on

London-based, Taiwanese artist Ting Cheng — who we first learned about on Art Sponge — created photo series One and two and up and down based on her own personal sense of isolation, alienation, and the need to escape. Her figures appear to be sleeping and floating — some contorted in impossible positions — or like fragments from a dream world posed amongst landscapes and intimate, contemporary settings. She explained more about the surreal imagery on website Imagery Dimension:

“When there is nowhere to run to, the best way is always to turn back to yourself and create a new reality within yourself; simply through the power of your own imagination. So I started playing around with things I found on the street, I used my body as a scale to measure landscape, and tried to oppose it against gravity. Thus, this series of photographic documentation was the tangible manifesto of my somewhat elusive state of existence.”

Visit our gallery of Ting Cheng’s work past the break, and visit her website and Flickr page for more dreamy images. … Read More

Photography

Surreal, Fetishistic Photos of Nudes and High Heels [NSFW]

By Alison Nastasi on

We’ve admired the work of New York photographer Bela Borsodi before, but Juxtapoz tipped us off to an interesting series the artist created for V Magazine. Combining female nudes and high heel fashions, Borsodi was able to personify a foot fetish in surreal and sensual ways. The curves and angles of the female form mesh nicely with the slopes and lines of each shoe, which Borsodi has filled with contorted flesh. Straps, buckles, and bows further evoke fetishism by resembling bondage devices. Imagine a slicker and slightly less disturbing version of Hans Bellmer’s La Poupée, or other avant-garde surrealist works that focused on objects of desire (and loathing). Click through to see more of Borsodi’s fetish photos. … Read More

Books

10 Essential Surrealist Books for Everyone

By Emily Temple on

Shane Jones knows a little bit about surrealism. In his first novel, Light Boxes, the inhabitants of a tiny town fought against perpetual February — and in his wonderful and hallucinatory new novel, Daniel Fights a Hurricane, the weather has only gotten meaner — and the people stranger. Because we’re so consistently bewitched by his work, we asked Jones to curate a list of essential surrealist reads for us, so we can pass the time between his novels a little more easily. He writes: ”My motivation here isn’t to offer a pretentious list of obscure artsy books – I could very easily do that – but to provide suggestions for books that can be easily found, tastefully devoured, and will supply a healthy shot of the weird stuff. Nothing too weird, but also nothing too easy – no mentions of Salvador Dalí or my mother’s 1960s era fairy tale pictures that hang in the living room. Here are the essential surrealist works for everyone – some old, some new, all must-reads.” We wholeheartedly concur. … Read More

Art

Surreal Narrative Paintings of Abandoned Objects

By Alison Nastasi on

Swiss artist Till Rabus — who we first became familiar with on website Booooooom — creates bizarre, hyppereal paintings of abandoned objects and trash. The garbage-filled, painted assemblages are composed of personal belongings, food, and more, creating unusual and striking narratives. In several cases, Rabus’ vivid pieces feature frightening scarecrow-like beings made from the discarded items. Other artworks play off of surrealist masters like Dalí. See more in our gallery after the jump. … Read More

Art

Bizarre Sculptures That Will Shock and Awe You

By Caroline Stanley on

While the surreal visions dreamed up by London-based American artist Nancy Fouts might look like the result of someone having a little too much fun with Photoshop, they are in fact real sculptures. She keeps boxes of objects on hand to inspire her pieces, which range from the absurdly hilarious (a cracked egg that contains another smaller egg; a toothbrush with teeth instead of bristles) to the slightly sinister (a snail slithering along a razor blade; a birdhouse surrounded by spikes). As Fouts explained to My Modern Met, her work is “all about manipulating the object to realize my idea. Everything starts with the idea… It’s not deep, but it’s entertaining and it makes people smile.” Click through and see how you react when confronted with her strange, provocative creations. … Read More

Photography

Man Ray’s Avant-Garde Portraits of Famous Friends

By Alison Nastasi on

Man Ray’s most prolific years were during his time in Paris in the 1920s. The artist left New York for France’s bohemian metropolis where the former painter and Dadaist was embraced by the Surrealist community, and his photography career started to take shape. Most of Man Ray’s models were the hipster elite of his social circle — famous friends with impressive careers of their own, many burgeoning legends in the art and literary worlds. He took snaps of everyone from a baby-faced Salvador Dalí, Hemingway, New York collaborator Marcel Duchamp, and model-cum-muse and photographer Lee Miller. The portraits are modern (several look like they were taken just yesterday), bold, humorous, and quintessentially Man Ray. Check out our gallery past the break for a closer look. … Read More