Su rr e ali sm

What is surrealism? Surrealism is an art movement, mainly in France, which started in the 1920's and was mainly finished by the 1960's. It was a response to the western culture and the end of ww1, so dominated art between the two wars. Surrealism is paintings from dreams and nightmares and is realistic, but from the imagination. It contains weird, distorted and strange things.
Salvador Dali Salvador Dali was a famous surrealism artist and was born in 1904, and died in 1989. He was born in Spain, but moved to France and was famous for his outrageous lifestyle nearly as much as his art. In 1921, he attended an art academy in Madrid, but while he was studying he got caught up in a student riot and was sent to prison for 35 days. When he returned to the academy, he continued to finish his art degree but refused to take the final exam. His paintings usually contain simple landscapes with a lot of detail and strong tones. His paintings are often distorted and soft. His art contains many dripping/melting clocks, ants, props and drawers.

ReneMagritte ReneMagrittewasbornin1898anddied1967.HewasborninBelguimandhisjobwasa wallpaperdesignerbeforehetookupsurrealismpaintingfulltime.Hewasaquietandshyman andwasmodestandwellmannered.Mostofhispaintingslookquitenormalexceptfor1thing normallyenlargedorstrange. Hehadaninvalidmotherand,whenRenewas9,hewatchedherdrownhimselfinalake.Thelast timehesawher,shewasbeingpulledoutthelakeandherwetdresswasoverherhead.Thisis whyheissaidtopaintmanypictureswithfabricoverpeople'sheads.

Sleep 'Sleep' is a surrealism painting by Salvador Dali which I particularly like. It is a picture of a huge skin-coloured head, held up by a lot of props, in a landscape of sand fading to white in the middle, fading into a deep blue sky at the top. The head has a piece of fabric over the ear and is dripping at the end. The 11 props holding it up are places at the end of the head, in the middle and under the chin, holding up the bottom lip, two holding up the top lip, holding up his cheek, his nose twice and his eye brow. There is also another one holding up his forehead. These look very painful. There is also another prop holding up the sky. On the horizon, there is a boat. This suggests that maybe the landscape isn't sand, but sea. There is also some houses on the horizon which are made to look like dogs as well. I like this painting because it is bright and clear what it is, even if it is a bit weird. The confusing object in the picture make it interesting to look at.