Surrealism Painting the Subconscious Expression

Surrealists believed in releasing the creative power of the subconscious mind and were interested in Freud’s theories on dreams। There were nearly as many ideas on how this was best expressed as there were artists involved in the movement। One of the techniques that the artists of the Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist movements developed was ‘automatism’. Using automatism the artist produced spontaneous paintings or drawings by suppressing conscious control over the movements of the hand and allowing the subconscious mind to take over. Once an interesting image or form had been achieved by chance it was then developed by consciousness. To paint or draw using critical paranoia you might stare at the patterns in a rock until you imagine a figure or scene emerge from the designs. Then draw or paint that scene while you consciously set aside your understanding that the scene is really a rock.The art created using the techniques of automatism or critical paranoia often depict the unreal dream space or even hallucinations of the subconscious mind. (Sharon Himes)

Bust of Voltare (by Salvador Dali)

The Bust of Voltaire image is a detail from a Surrealistic painting by Salvador Dali। The detail shows the double image effect that Dali created using his Critical Paranoia method. The figures in the slave market form the features of the bust of Voltaire while the negative space of an arch in the background creates Voltaire’s head.To practice automatism, sit with a pencil and paper and close your eyes. Let a pencil wander over a page without thinking about it. Then, opening your eyes, see what the lines or forms suggest to you. Go back with the pencil and bring out the figure or shapes that you see there that your subconscious mind has recognized.

Amazing Expressionism

Expressionism is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for an emotional effect; it is a subjective art form. The term often implies emotional angst. In a general sense, painters such as Matthias Grünewald and El Greco can be called expressionist, though in practice, the term is applied mainly to 20th century works.



The Pioner

Vincent van Gogh, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland. Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. He remained in Belgium to study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty. The works of his early Dutch period are somber-toned, sharply lit, genre paintings of which the most famous is "The Potato Eaters" (1885). In that year van Gogh went to Antwerp where he discovered the works of Rubens and purchased many Japanese prints.. In Paris, van Gogh studied with Cormon, inevitably met Pissarro, Monet, and Gauguin, and began to lighten his very dark palette and to paint in the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists. Vincent van Gogh painted a lot of self-portraits, experimenting with various techniques and approaches (and saving money on a model!). Van Gogh's style of self-portrait (the poses, the intense brushwork, the introspective expression) influenced the portraits created by Expressionist painters such as Emil Nolde, Erich Heckel, and Lovis Corinth.

Paul Jackson Pollock

(January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionist movement. . Benton's rural American subject matter shaped Pollock's work only fleetingly, but his rhythmic use of paint and his fierce independence were more lasting influences. From 1935 to 1943, Pollock worked for the WPA Federal Art Project. Pollock was introduced to the use of liquid paint in 1936, at an experimental workshop operated in New York City by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. He later used paint pouring as one of several techniques in canvases of the early 1940s, such as "Male and Female" and "Composition with Pouring I." After his move to Springs, he began painting with his canvases laid out on the studio floor, and developed what was later called his "drip" technique. The drip technique required paint with a fluid viscosity so Pollock turned to then new synthetic resin-based paints, called alkyd enamels. Pollock described this use of household paints, instead of artist’s paints, as "a natural growth out of a need". He used hardened brushes, sticks and even basting syringes as paint applicators. Pollock's technique of pouring and dripping paint is thought to be one of the origins of the term action painting. With this technique, Pollock was able to achieve a more immediate means of creating art, the paint now literally flowing from his chosen tool onto the canvas. In 1956 Time magazine dubbed Pollock "Jack the Dripper" as a result of his unique painting style.

Vincent Van Gogh Galleries

"Starry Night"

"Shoes"

Jackson Pollock Galleries

"Autumn Rhythm"



"Lavender Mist"



"Shewolf"