From France to Japan : migration of the surrealist ideas and its influence on Japanese avant-garde film

When in 1920s Surrealism appeared on the Japanese ground it was just after publishing the famous Surrealists Manifesto by André Breton. The creators of Surrealism, who brought attention to the power of unconsciousness and made the understanding of the role of dreams the central subject of their pursuits, firstly inspired the poets, painters and theorists. However, from the 1960s the aesthetics of Surrealism also became an essential source of inspiration for the avant-garde and experimental filmmakers. Following the goal stated by the Western artists, the avant-garde Japanese film directors present the life as ruled by absurd and grotesque situations, full of the mysterious atmosphere of the dream-like structured world. The references to Surrealism appeared in the works of such avant-garde artists as Teinosuke Kinugasa (early exception of the idea on the Japanese cinematic ground), Masao Adachi, Shūji Terayama, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Toshio Matsumoto and Donald Richie. The presented article depicts how Surrealism, perceived as movement and aesthetic, was transferred from one culture to another. The author focuses on the field of Japanese avant-garde and experimental film

Surrealism Is Not an Alternative to Scientific Realism

Surrealism holds that observables behave as if T were true, whereas scientific realism holds that T is true. Surrealism and scientific realism give different explanations of why T is empirically adequate. According to surrealism, T is empirically adequate because observables behave as if it were true. According to scientific realism, T is empirically adequate because it is true. I argue that the surrealist explanation merely clarifies the concept of empirical adequacy, whereas the realist explanation makes an inductive inference about T. Therefore, the surrealist explanation is a conceptual one, whereas the realist explanation is an empirical one, and the former is not an alternative to the latter

ANDRÉ BRETON AND J.R.R. TOLKIEN: SURREALISM, SUBCREATION AND FRODO’S DREAMS

Tolkien knew and correctly understood the Surrealism of André Breton and, although he did not share its fundamental theoretical assumptions, he nevertheless included surrealist dream experiences in his work through the dreams of Frodo. This thesis will be demonstrated by dividing the study into three sections: - the first section will examine the development of Breton’s Surrealism in England and demonstrating that the Inklings were well aware of this contemporary avant-garde ; - the second section, will explain what Surrealism meant to Breton, how well Tolkien understood this, and how his creative sub-theory turned out to be the opposite of the surrealist perspective; - the third section, will show that, despite this diversity, the character of Frodo also includes typically modern and surrealist dream experiences

Dadaism, Surrealism, and the Unconscious

This paper explores two important, twentieth-century art movements, Dadaism and Surrealism and the use of primitivist representations and their relation to the art emerging from the unconscious. By giving some examples, it is argued that the influence of 'Primitive' art is strongly felt in the art of many artists of these movements. One must also include the growing interest of psychoanalytic studies, especially in the works of the period of Freud and Jung. The Dadaist artists created their art through the irrational approach towards nature and a 'primitive' attitude to the environment, the art of children and of the insane. On the other hand, the Surrealists approached the unconscious through automatism and dreams. These artists also explored the ancient human past and what is termed as the 'primitive' unconscious.peer-reviewe

Modern Narcissus: the lingering reflections of myth in modern art

Why has myth continued to fascinate modern artists, and why the myth of Narcissus, with its modern association with narcissism? This article considers the relationship between the Narcissus myth and the lineage of modern art that runs from Symbolism to surrealism through the polymorphous prism of the Greco-Roman Pantheon to which Narcissus belongs. The article offers an interpretation of the role of mythology in modern art that moves beyond psychoanalysis to incorporate the longer span of the art-historical tradition. Addressing issues of aesthetics, gender and sexuality, the following account highlights Narcissus‟s double nature as an erotic myth that comprises both identity formation and intersubjectivity, as enacted in the field of representation. The myths associated with Narcissus in the history of Western art will help us reconsider his role as a powerful figure capable to activate that slippage between word and image, identity and sociability, representation and reality which was celebrated by the Symbolists and formed the centre of the surrealists‟ social-aesthetic project

On the necessity of wonder: how to explain an artwork to a committee

This essay emerged from an exhibition in 2006 in which notions of the Wunderkammer became central in the curation of the show. It brought together work by Anna Boggon, Silke Dettmers and Helen Maurer, three artists employing the language of what one could call the 'contemporary surreal' ('The Wrong End of the Telescope', Three Colts Gallery, London). The history and concept of the Wunderkammer is critical for the argument pursued in this article, which calls for the re-instatement of 'wonder' and the idea of 'the marvellous'. These are vital ingredients for visual arts practice but are unacknowledged in today's art academies. It takes on board the current debate of 'visual arts practice as research' and extends the argument of authors such as Sullivan (Art Practice as Research, 2005) and Barone, by demonstrating conventional academic definitions of 'knowledge' and artistic practice to be irreconcilable. The importance of not knowing. Wunderkammern and Curiosity Cabinets. Some thoughts on the real, the surreal and the contemporary surreal. The aspirations of words and the difficulties with 'proof'. Heterotopias. Questions rather than answers

Mike Kelley and Surrealism: monkeys, frogs, dogs and Mauss

This paper reads the 1980s and 1990s soft toy and sock-monkey installations of multimedia artist Mike Kelley in relation to surrealism. Using Hal Foster’s comments on abject art - of which Kelley is often considered an exponent - I consider the extent to which Kelley’s work desublimates and makes available as ‘affect’ some of the structures of feeling, and structuring feelings, of the capitalist lifeworld. I compare Kelley’s work to its surrealist antecedents and judge the political efficacy of that avant-garde against his postmodern practice. While this essay uses writers like Freud and Marx, alongside Breton, Bataille and Kelley himself, it is Marcel Mauss’s well-known theory of the gift that takes centre stage in reckoning the social and political significance of Kelley and his use of surrealist discourse

Max Ernst and the Aesthetic of Commercial Tourism: Max Among Some of His Favorite Dolls

abstract: "Max Ernst and the Aesthetic of Commercial Tourism: Max Among His Favorite Dolls" examines Surrealist artist Max Ernst's practice of collecting Hopi and Zuni kachina figurines. Ernst, like some other European Surrealists, was an avid collector of Native Amercian material culture and ceremonial hardware. Surrealists interest in Indigenous material was part of a larger program to destabilize European privileging of the mind and art as rational constructs. This paper focuses on James Thrall Soby's 1941 photograph of Ernst surrounded by his collection of kachina figurine, which was first published in the April edition of View Magazine. As Soby's portrait of Ernst has been reproduced many times over course of the past six decades, it has become an emblem of the Surrealists general interest in Native Americana. In contrast to vanguardism with which Ernst and other Surrealist's collecting practices is usually credited, this paper examines Soby portrait of Ernst's within practices of commercial tourism and the souvenir industry in the Southwest. By the mid 1940s, Hopi and Zuni kachina figurine makers had a well-developed commercial kachina figurine industry that targeted the patronage of visitors to the regions. Evidence levied in the development of Ernst's tourist aesthetic includes his mode of collection, display, and stories that surround Max's assemblage of kachina figurines. This paper further differentiates it from the collecting practices of Surrealist counterparts such as André Breton