Surrealism



Surrealism

Surrealism began as a literature and philosophical movement established by Andre Breton, it later became an art movement (The Message of Surrealist Art. 2009).




Max Ernst, The Elephant Celebes. 1921




Surrealism intended express the unconscious and subconscious, they combined the unconscious and conscious mind to achieve until now what is considered an impossible artistic creation. The juxtaposing of unrelated visuals became the way of achieving surrealism art. 

Ernst had served in World War I and had been deeply affected by it, one can tell from looking at the above image; the elephant has been interpreted to represent the fear-inducing British tanks being seen for the first time, the headless woman likely represents Ernst’s sister, whose death traumatized him. In reality, a tank and Ernst’s dead sister would never appear side by side in his life, but inside Ernst’s mind during the war, these thoughts were mixed together (The Message of Surrealist Art. 2009).





Kadi Sabi, Konnoisseur Kadi, 2017.




Similar to Ernst's artwork The Elephant Celebes in Sabi's artwork above, the elements in the artwork are unrelated things that in  reality would never appear side by side but in his mind these things are mixed together (The Message of Surrealist Art. 2009). 

The street signs and buildings in the background are from a place called Maboneng in Johannesburg, a place which Sabi only visited once but it stuck in his mind. The Adobe Illustrator logo represents the fact he uses Illustrator almost every day. The clock repesents the fact that he is an 11th hour person (he does things during the last hours).

Sabi also has a sky in the background, something we see often in Surrealism art, similar to the Surrealist artists the sky is something Sabi sees everyday (keeping in mind the Surrealist concept of projecting whats in the subconscious mind), that is what Sabi along with the Surrealist artists probably did; project something they saw everyday that was in their subconscious mind.









sources consulted

Fred Stern, “Surrealism: The Alternate Reality,” World & I 24, no. 1 (2009)

Turkel, Daniel. The Message Of Surrealist Art: Automatism, Juxtaposition And Dreams. 1st ed. 2009. Print.

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