The Surrealist movement was founded in Paris 1924 by a small group of writers and artists who sought to channel the unconscious as a means to unlock the power of the imagination. Disdaining rationalism and literary realism, and powerfully influenced by Sigmund Freud, the Surrealists believed the conscious mind repressed the power of the imagination, weighting it down with taboos. Influenced also by Karl Marx, they hoped that the psyche had the power to reveal the contradictions in the everyday world and spur on revolution. Their emphasis on the power of the imagination puts them in the tradition of Romanticism, but unlike their forbears, they believed that revelations could be found on the street and in everyday life. The Surrealist impulse to tap the subconscious mind, and their interests in myth and primitivism, went on to shape the Abstract Expressionists, and they remain influential today.
Surrealism has come to be seen as the most influential movement in twentieth century art. Figures like Salvador Dalí and Man Ray not only had an important influence on avant-garde art, but through their commercial work - in fashion photography, advertising and film - they brought the style to a huge popular audience. Following the demise ofMinimalism in the 1960s, the movement's influence also returned to art, and since the 1970s it has attracted considerable attention from art historians.Surrealism was officially founded in 1924, when André Breton wrote Le Manifeste du Surréalisme. In it, he defined Surrealism as "Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express - verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner - the actual functioning of thought." In this, he proposed that artists should seek access to their unconscious mind in order to make art inspired by this realm.Initially a literary movement, many Surrealists were ambivalent about the possibilities of painting, however, the group's leader, André Breton, later embraced and promoted painting. The work of Surrealist painters such as Joan Miró would be an important influence on the Abstract Expressionists in the 1940s.
Socialist realism
evalent in the Soviet Union from 1932 to the mid-1980s. For that period of history Socialist Realism was the sole criterion for measuring literary works. Defined and reinterpreted over years of polemics, it remains a vague term.
Socialist Realism follows the great tradition of 19th-century Russian realism in that it purports to be a faithful and objective mirror of life. It differs from earlier realism, however, in several important respects. The realism of Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov inevitably conveyed a critical picture of the society it portrayed (hence the term critical realism). The primary theme of Socialist Realism is the building of socialism and a classless society. In portraying this struggle, the writer could admit imperfections but was expected to take a positive and optimistic view of socialist society and to keep in mind its larger historical relevance.
A requisite of Socialist Realism is the positive hero who perseveres against all odds or handicaps. Socialist Realism thus looks back to Romanticism in that it encourages a certain heightening and idealizing of heroes and events to mold the consciousness of the masses. Hundreds of positive heroes—usually engineers, inventors, or scientists—created to this specification were strikingly alike in their lack of lifelike credibility. Rarely, when the writer’s deeply felt experiences coincided with the official doctrine, the works were successful, as with the Soviet classic Kak zakalyalas stal (1932–34; How the Steel Was Tempered), written by Nikolay Ostrovsky, an invalid who died at 32. His hero, Pavel Korchagin, wounded in the October Revolution, overcomes his health handicap to become a writer who inspires the workers of the Reconstruction. The young novelist’s passionate sincerity and autobiographical involvement lends a poignant conviction to Pavel Korchagin that is lacking in most heroes of Socialist Realism.
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Socialist Realism was also the officially sponsored Marxist aesthetic in the visual arts, which fulfilled the same propagandistic and ideological functions as did literature. Socialist Realist paintings and sculptures used naturalistic idealization to portray workers and farmers as dauntless, purposeful, well-muscled, and youthful. Socialist Realism remained the official aesthetic of the Soviet Union (and of its eastern European satellites) until the late 20th century, at which time the changes in Soviet society initiated by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev led to abandonment of the aesthetic.
Abstraction-creation group
The Abstraction-Création group was founded by Theo van Doesburg, after he became
disillusioned with his Art Concret movement (1930), and the disbanding of the Cercle et Carré
group in 1931. It was in these circumstances that the Abstraction-Création group (which
brought together members of these groups) came into being in Paris on 15th February 1931.
Founding members included Etienne Béothy, Auguste Herbin, Jean Hélion, Jean (Hans) Arp,
Léon Tutundjian, Georges Vantongerloo and František Kupka, amongst others. The group’s
artistic programme was reflected in its name, and it provided divergent positions in non-
figurative art from abstract and concrete contexts, with a podium, bringing together Cubist,
Constructivist, Neoplasticist and De Stjil artists.
The primary formal elements, which unified the group were geometric designs and rhythmically
structured compositions. Between 1931 and its dissolution in 1936, the group held various
exhibitions and put out a number of publications. Other members of the Abstraction-Création
group included Alexander Calder, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Robert Delaunay, Sonia
Delaunay-Terk, Antoine Pevsner, Naum Gabo, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Friedrich
Vordemberge-Gildewart and Kurt Schwitters. The group continued to be influential, even after
its dissolution, particularly in Switzerland
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