← Back

Title of the article: The metaphysical dimension of the art of surrealism
Author(s): BYCHKOV V. V.
Section: Art theory and history
Year: 2016
Issue: № 1 (39)
Pages: 171-188
Index UDK: 75
Index BBK: 85.1
Abstract: The art of surrealism as one of the principal trends of the 20th-century culture reveals to the contemporary viewer deeper levels and meanings than those upon which the aesthetics of the surrealists themselves was built. The surrealists’ focus on the priority of the subconscious in one’s creative activity objectively led them to the revelation of some essential aspects of the spiritual being of their time, which found their expression in the spirit of surrealism that is common to the entire trend. An analysis of principal paintings of well-known surrealists shows that the greatest surrealists in their work presented the images of phantasmagoric other-being, which is based on the grandiose metamorphoses of the objects of visible reality, on the global out-of-this-world-ness of artistic space, and which displays bright apocalyptic tones. It is the latter that is the most peculiar characteristic and the metaphysical foundation of the spirit of surrealism in art.
Keywords: surrealism, spirit of surrealism, aesthetics of surrealism, surrealist painting, apocalyptics, Breton, De Chirico, Magritte, Delvaux, Dali
Bibliography: 1 Antologiya frantsusskogo surrealisma: 20-e gody [ Anthology of French Surrealism]. Moscow, GITIS Publ., 1994. 392 p. 2 Bychkov V. V., Mankovskaya N. B, Ivanov V. V. Trialog plus [Trialogue plus]. Moscow, Progress-Traditsia Publ., 2013. 496 p., il. 3 Dali S. Taynaya zhisn’ Salvadora Dali, napisannaya im samim o sebe i obo wsem prochem [The Secret Life of Salvador Dali] Moscow, Swarog Publ., 1996. 464 p., il. 4 Breton A. Manifestes du Surréalisme. Paris, Jean-Jacques Pauvert, 1962. 318 pp. 5 Breton A. Oeuvres complètes. Paris, Gallimard, 1988. Vol. 1. 1798 pp. 6 Waldberg P. Der Surrealismus. Koeln, DuMont, 1981.
PDF file:   Download
Illustrations:   Download