Full Description
No other art movement in history has contained two artists as different as Magritte and Miró. This is because Surrealism was not in origin an art movement, but a philosophical strategy. It was a way of life - a rebellion against the establishment that had given the world the hideous slaughter of the First World War. Instead of trying to analyse the work of the Surrealists, bestselling author and Surrealist artist Desmond Morris concentrates on them as people - as remarkable individuals. What were their personalities, their predilections, their character strengths and flaws? Did they enjoy a social life or were they loners? Were they bold eccentrics or timid recluses?
Drawing on the author's personal knowledge of the Surrealists, this book captures their life histories, idiosyncrasies and often-complex love lives, vividly illustrated with images of the artists and their works. The arts of Surrealism were both spectacular and international, shaped by the darkest, most irrational workings of the unconscious. Shocking, witty and always entertaining, Morris's tales illuminate the striking variation in approaches to the Surrealist philosophy, both in the artists' work and in their lives.
With 72 illustrations
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Eileen Agar
Jean (Hans) Arp
Francis Bacon
Hans Bellmer
Victor Brauner
André Breton
Alexander Calder
Leonora Carrington
Giorgio de Chirico
Salvador Dalí
Paul Delvaux
Marcel Duchamp
Max Ernst
Leonor Fini
Wilhelm Freddie
Alberto Giacometti
Arshile Gorky
Wifredo Lam
Conroy Maddox
René Magritte
André Masson
Roberto Matta
Edouard Mesens
Joan Miró
Meret Oppenheim
Wolfgang Paalen
Roland Penrose
Pablo Picasso
Man Ray
Yves Tanguy
Dorothea Tanning
Major Surrealist Group Exhibitions
