Realism and Surrealism: Defining the Arts

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Realism and Surrealism: Defining the Arts
Realism was created as a response to the withstanding Romanticism of the first half in the 19th century. This response was attributed by the occurrence of the Bourgeois revolts of 1848, which changed literary tastes. After Bourgeois prevailed, the revolution brought on economic reform and later Socialism and class struggle, which interrupted the social scene. In this era of changes, writers began to study the reality of the world around them. History and mythology lost their literary importance to many (Rubin).
Aesthetically realistic paintings were just that, realistic depictions of real-time scenes. In keeping with Gustave Courbet’s statement in 1861 “painting is an essentially concrete art and can only consist in the representation of real and existing things” (Finocchio). In realism, there is no personification of people as mythical beings, no glorifications, and romanticizing takes no place. The focus of this art period was on the common man.
Surrealism is a type of art and literature that developed in the 20th century, officially in 1924. Surrealism grew through Europe between World War I and World War II. It was founded by a small group of artists attempting to unlock the power of imagination and heavily influenced by Sigmund Freud. Surrealism evolved from the Dada movement, which created paintings of anti-art that purposely defied normal reasoning to the viewer. However, Surrealism focused on positive expression of the unconscious mind not blocked by rational thinking (Voorhies).
Surrealism focused on the exposing of dream-like atmospheres by using desire, sexuality, and violence. Many paintings provided a type of therapeutic medicine during the art creation by visually expressing their unconscious thoughts for all to see. Franklin Rosemont summarized the surrealistic movement well by stating “Contrary to prevalent misdefinitions, surrealism is not an aesthetic doctrine, nor a philosophical system, nor a mere literary or artistic school. It is an unrelenting revolt against a civilization that reduces all human aspirations to market values, religious impostures, universal boredom and misery.”
Although Realism and Surrealism share realistic life-like artistic similarities, they differ greatly of what is expressed and are easily distinguishable. The two genres nearly over lapped in the same time period with roughly 20 years between the end of Realism and beginning of Surrealism. Artistically, both obey the normal laws of light, shadow, and perspective. Both art forms generally attempt to re-create an image of an individual or object in a realistic form. Realism portrays the social norm for everyday objects while Surrealism has no limit for an artist to express the imaginable. Surrealism needed to deviate from Realism stylistically to create such dramatic and dream-like art works.
Comparing a painting from the Realism and Surrealism era is generally very distinguishable. Although they share the normal artistic laws of light, shadow, color, and perspective, the subject matter and surface canvas is what sets them apart. When comparing the realistic classic “Young Ladies of the Village” (Courbet) and surrealistic “The Barbarians” (Ernst), the viewer can begin to depict the difference in style and eras of art.
The realistic painting “Young Ladies of the Village” (Courbet), displays a vision of three sisters in a small valley painted by Gustave Courbet. The landscape and colors are portrayed to be realistic and was painted of a real valley in the artist’s home village (Courbet). The women have a dog with them and there are two cows near them in the distance. This was a large oil painting on a typical canvas. Although scale is a flaw of this painting, the overall sense is a true realistic depiction of 1852 in that exact year. After much criticism from realistic followers, he later removed two large trees and enlarged the cattle for better effect of correct scale.
Using cardboard and oil paint, “The Barbarians” is a surrealistic small painting completed by Max Ernst in 1937. This painting depicts the artist’s fearful anticipation of the devastation of WWII (Ernst). In this small painting, a large, evil-looking bird pair walks ahead with large strides. The female appears to be directing the male, as he turns to look at a strange animal hanging on his arm. In the distance, a small woman holds onto a mythological being. The odd patterns on the bodies of the figures are completed by scraping. In this technique, the artist coated the canvas with layers of paint. While wet, it was pressed against objects to create a rough surface. Once dried, it was touched up by scraping layers of unwanted pigment (Ernst).
The latter movement of Surrealism dissolved with the beginning of WWII. Surrealism's rich symbolism, evolved painting techniques, and surprising imagery by the human mind, influenced later generations of artists whose work formed a bridge between Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. The first generation of Abstract Expressionism prospered between 1943 and the mid-1950’s (Voorhies).

Reference Page

Finocchio, Ross. (2000-.) Nineteenth-Century French Realism. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rlsm/hd_rlsm.htm
Voorhies, James. (2000-.) Surrealism. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm
Courbet, Gustave. (2000-.) Young Ladies of the Village. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah.works-of-art/40.175
Ernst, Max. (2004.) The Barbarians. Retrieved from http://www.metmusuem.org/toah.works-of-art/1999.363.21
Rubin, Normin A. (2007.) Surrealism a Style of Art. Retrieved from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/261171/Surrealism StyleofArt