MORE SURREALISTIC ART MAKING TECHNIQUES

4. Frottage
Frottage is a French word that translates ‘rubbing’ and it involves the creative process
of rubbing onto a sheet of paper on top of a textured surface by using a pencil,
chalk, crayon, or other drawing material. It was a method developed by Max Ernst
around 1926 when he was trying to adjust the rickety wooden floorboard at an inn
where he was staying in Brittany. He was inspired by the grains of the wood board
and experimented by laying paper on top and rubbing on with a pencil. He then
went on to develop this technique even further, by capturing a variety of textures,
such as textiles, leaves, bark, and later applied the technique to oil painting and gave
it the name “grattage”.

Ernst described the process of creating imaginary worlds through this technique in
the following manner:

“When I intensely stared at the drawing won in this manner, at the ‘dark spots, and
others of a delicate, light, semi-darkness,’ I was by the sudden augmentation of my
visionary facilities with contrasting and superimposed pictures.”

Apart from Ernst, other Surrealist painters such as Henri Michaux, Andre Bréton, and
Ronald Penrose all used the frottage method.
Max Ernst, THE FUGITIVE FROM NATURAL HISTORY, published 1926. One from a
portfolio of 34 collotypes after frottage, composition: 25.7 × 42.3 cm; sheet: 32.3 × 49.8
cm – The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA)

Sir
Roland Penrosa, SURREALIST LANDSCAPE, c. 1932. Color crayon, graphite and
frottage on paper 31.8 x 48.9cm – Private Collection, Pennsylvania,USA
5. Grattage

Max Ernst, THE ENTIRE CITY – LA VILLE ENTIRE, 1935-36. Oil on canvas, 60 cm x
81cm – Museum Kunsthaus Zurich, Switzerland
Grattage is derived from the French word which means ‘scraping’ and was invented
by surrealist artist Max Ernst as an extension of the frottage technique. It involves
applying a thick layer of paint on a canvas or other flat surface placed on top of a
textured object and then scraping the paint off with a spatula to create unexpected
effects of textures, marks, and shapes. Ernst would use relief-like objects to produce
patterns and textures on his canvas surface, which he would then rework with paint
and transform them into fascinating surreal landscapes of mysterious forests and
imaginary cities.

6. Decalcomania
Decalcomania is a decorative transfer method that was invented in 18th-century
England and used to decorate ceramics and other materials by transferring
engravings and prints. The Surrealists adopted it and made it popular as a means of
generating chance imagery without conscious control. This transfer technique
involves applying and spreading ink or paint onto a surface, covering it while it’s still
wet with something like paper, glass, or another material, and then removing it to
reveal a pattern and paint stains that can be further enhanced. The surrealist artists
Oscar Dominguez and Max Ernst are often associated with it since they used the
technique to create imaginary landscapes from the resulting patterns and textures.

The most popular decalcomania technique used today is known as a “butterfly print,”
which is frequently used by school kids where they paint on a piece of paper, fold
and press it to get a mirror pattern when they unfold it.

AndréBreton, UNTITLED, 1935. Decalcomania (ink transfer) on paper, 25.3 x 32.3 cm

– The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA)
Oscar Dominguez, UNTITLED, 1937. Decalcomania (gouache transfer) on paper, 16.6 x
24.9 cm – The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA)
 Max
Ernst, ALICE, 1941. Oil on paper mounted on canvas, 40.0 x 32.3 cm – The Museum of
Modern Art, New York (MoMA)
7. Fumage
The technique of fumage was invented by the Austrian painter Wolfgang Paalen in
1937. This technique involves the use of candle smoke to produce distinctive
patterns and impressions on the surface of a piece of paper. Fumages are
distinguished by ethereal, nebulous forms and mysterious patterns that evoke
dreams and apparitions. Paale also applied this technique in oil painting.
Other Surrealists who utilized the method fumage were Salvador Dal, Roberto Matta,
Alberto Burri, and Ian Hugo.

Wolfgang Paalen, UNTITLED, 1937. Fumage(Smoke Painting) oil, candle burns, and
wooden strip with nails and wire on canvas, 60,7 × 52,7 cm – National Museums in
Berlin, National Gallery, Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection
Salvador Dalí,AUTUMNAL CANNIBALISM, 1936. Oil on canvas, 65.1 x 65.1 cm –
Tate Modern, London, UK

8. Objects and Assemblage

Surrealists were fascinated by the idea that some objects had mystical properties,
and began experimenting with the assemblages in bizarre juxtapositions that evoked
the subconscious mind and defied reason. They would use the “found object” or
“objet trouvé” in French, to create startling arrangements. Found object is a term that
refers to art that utilizes and modifies everyday objects, (natural or man-made), to
repurpose them into art while keeping them in a recognizable form.

The unexpected juxtaposition of seemingly unrelatable objects is also a characteristic

of the Dada movement. Marcel Duchamp, an artist whose work is associated with
Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art, was the first artist who broke down the
boundaries between works of art and everyday objects, by creating his provocative
ready-mades, where he appropriated mass-produced objects and elevated them to
the status of art. He was one of the most respected members of the Surrealist circle
and the Surrealists were inspired by his approach and began
creating their “surrealist objects”. Unlike him though, they intended that the new
object would evoke symbolic connotations and an emotional response. Additionally,
some artists such as Salvador Dali embraced Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic
theories which hypothesized that objects might function as projections of repressed
sexual impulses.

Many Surrealists artists such as Salvador Dali, Andre Breton, Man Ray, Meret
Oppenheim, Oscar Dominguez, and Alberto Giacometti, have experimented with this
technique.
Man ray, INDESTRUCTIBLE OBJECT, 1923, remade 1933, editioned replica 1965.
Wooden metronome, and photograph, black and white, on paper, 21,5 × 11 × 11,5 cm –
Tate Modern, London, UK

Alberto Giacometti, THE PALACE AT 4 a.m., 1932. Wood, glass, wire, and string, 63.5
x 71.8 x 40 cm – The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA)
Salvador Dali, LOBSTER TELEPHONE, 1938. Steel, plaster, rubber, resin, and paper –
Tate Modern, London, UK

9. Surrealist Games (Exquisite Corpse)

The surrealist movement invented collaborative games for recreation and
investigation. The intention was to eliminate the interference of the rational mind as
much as possible, and allow concepts to flow more freely and uninhibited. Exquisite
corpse (Cadavre Exquis) is the most well-known of the surrealist group games and is
a collaborative process involving a group of people who compose poems or
drawings. It was devised by André Breton, Yves Tanguy, Jacques Prévert, and Marcel
Duchamp, in 1925 in Paris and was first conceived as a word game. Each player wrote
a word or phrase on a piece of paper, folded the paper to hide it, and then passed it
to the next player to add his piece. This led to nonsensical phrases like “The exquisite
corpse will drink the new wine” (“Le cadaver exquis boira le vin nouveau”), which is
how the game got its name.

This process was then applied for drawing as well, where each participant would
draw something, fold the paper to conceal the drawing, and then pass it to the
following player to add his drawing. The results of this process would
produce surprising juxtapositions, and fantastic, humorous creatures. Exquisite
Corpse was the ideal game for the Surrealists, as it promoted chance
and unpredictability, and co-creation at its best. Even to this day, this game is played
with enthusiasm by young and old alike.

Man Ray, Joan Miró,

Yves Tanguy, and Max Morise, EXQUISITE CORPSE, 1928. © 2018 Man Ray Trust /
Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Courtesy of the Art Institute of
Chicago Cadavre Exquis
with Yves Tanguy, Joan Miró, Max Morise, Man Ray, NUDE, 1927. Composite drawing
of ink, pencil, and colored pencil on paper, 35.9 x 22.9 cm – The Museum of Modern
Art, New York (MoMA)

10. Oscillation
Max Ernst began developing the oscillation technique around 1942, after arriving in
New York to escape WW2. Oscillation is a drip technique that involves tying a can of
paint with a hole in the bottom to a piece of string and swinging it back and forth
like a pendulum above a canvas. This results in configurations of lines and drops that
resemble ellipses and planet orbits; Ernst would then experiment with free
associations and rework on top of them.

Ernst’s sudden engagement with this technique may have at least two
interpretations. He was fascinated by astronomy and mathematics, and perhaps he
had seen the compound pendulum exhibited in physics seminars at the University of
Bonnhe, or he became aware of other artists using this device.

Max Ernst, LA PLANETE AFFOLEE, 1942. Oil on canvas, 110x140cm -Tel-Aviv Art
Museum