Surrealist artists (first one here - Jacek Yerka)

A village in some desert, and a piano with plants growing out of it on top? Hm, guess I'm not too crazy about weirdness for weirdness sake. Most of these (not all) feel rather shallow to me. My two favorite artists of the original surrealists Max Ernst and Rene Magritte, always seemed to have some kind of genuine idea behind their surreal scenery.

Anyway. Here's a drawing by a colleague of mine (link):

My God, so many good thing to check out in this thread, where to start?!?

And I must mention Dimitrije Popović:

Polish artist Witkacy (Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz) :

harmonium.ro wrote: Speaking of the historical surrealism, there's an excellent display of it at Tate Modern. I can't say I have any favourites from the historical surrealists but I find their ideas brilliant, and they have shaped the imaginary of the 20th century in a way that still defines it. Especially their explorations in film and photography have permeated, by the 40s and 50s, in the mainstream visual domain.

Yes, the display at the Tate was certainly pleasing. Also another Surrealist gallery which has opened over the last year or two to keep an eye out for is in Berlin - not too far from the Brandenburg Gates. Many of the work in the gallery has been tucked away in private collections for sometime. Last year I was able to see works by both Ernst and de Chirico (along side many other artist) I did not know existed.

I can echo your sentiment of 'brilliant ideas'. Since you are from France, have you looked into the French Surrealist at all? A large portion of the moment in Paris - fronted by Breton - was dominated by the literary facet, which suited my tastes more closely than the Visual Arts.

Also, over the last couple of months I've been making my way through Luis Bunuel's film's.  

harmonium.ro wrote: Yes. Recently I've seen this fabulous exhibition of surrealist exploration in photography and film, La Subversion Des Images, at the Pompidou, made I only of materials from their archives. I strongly recommend the catalogue, it's huge and contains all the exhibited material.

Any particular artists you'd cherry pick from the takings?

A couple of weeks ago I attended a Man Ray exhibition called 'Man Ray, Africa Art and the Modernist Len'. 'twas interesting for me, from the aspect that I'm intrigued by African Music/culture, so to see the way some of Surrealist photographers used these indigenous articles as Modernist ideas in the west (hate that terminology) was highly interesting. In many ways it reminded me of Ernst infatuation with the traditional Indian masks and figurines while he was traveling through America.   

Just jumping my previous post. Does somebody find it beautiful ?

^

That looks so much better without the corny cgi letters.

^ Actually, he was the only surrealist I knew for years. But go this way if you feel like, it's certainly rewarding experience.

You won't be disappointed.

That third one is Dali!
I recognize it in a hearbeat.

Like 70% of his paintings involve body parts/things being held up by sticks...