Kristians Tonny
1920s Surrealist Abstract Paintings
Oil, Board
1930s Surrealist Still-life Drawings and Watercolors
Watercolor
1940s Surrealist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Pen, Ink
People Also Browsed
21st Century and Contemporary Danish Mid-Century Modern Wall Mirrors
Brass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Wall Mirrors
Glass, Mirror
2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings
Oil, Wood Panel
Antique Mid-19th Century English High Victorian Taxidermy
Other
2010s South African Minimalist Pedestals
Hardwood
Early 2000s Contemporary Animal Paintings
House Paint
2010s American Modern Ottomans and Poufs
Velvet
2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings
Charcoal, Pastel, House Paint, Oil, Acrylic, Paper
1970s Modern Figurative Prints
Offset
Vintage 1950s French Modern Drawings
Paper
1960s Surrealist Prints and Multiples
Lithograph
1970s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
Lithograph
Vintage 1960s French Mid-Century Modern Drawings
Paper
1960s Surrealist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
India Ink, Gouache
Vintage 1940s Swedish Scandinavian Modern Tapestries
Wool, Linen
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Paintings
Gouache
Recent Sales
1950s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Lithograph
1940s Surrealist Figurative Paintings
India Ink, Mixed Media, Oil, Watercolor
A Close Look at surrealist Art
In the wake of World War I’s ravaging of Europe, artists delved into the unconscious mind to confront and grapple with this reality. Poet and critic André Breton, a leader of the Surrealist movement who authored the 1924 Surrealist Manifesto, called this approach “a violent reaction against the impoverishment and sterility of thought processes that resulted from centuries of rationalism.” Surrealist art emerged in the 1920s with dreamlike and uncanny imagery guided by a variety of techniques such as automatic drawing, which can be likened to a stream of consciousness, to channel psychological experiences.
Although Surrealism was a groundbreaking approach for European art, its practitioners were inspired by Indigenous art and ancient mysticism for reenvisioning how sculptures, paintings, prints, performance art and more could respond to the unsettled world around them.
Surrealist artists were also informed by the Dada movement, which originated in 1916 Zurich and embraced absurdity over the logic that had propelled modernity into violence. Some of the Surrealists had witnessed this firsthand, such as Max Ernst, who served in the trenches during World War I, and Salvador Dalí, whose otherworldly paintings and other work responded to the dawning civil war in Spain.
Other key artists associated with the revolutionary art and literary movement included Man Ray, Joan Miró, René Magritte, Yves Tanguy, Frida Kahlo and Meret Oppenheim, all of whom had a distinct perspective on reimagining reality and freeing the unconscious mind from the conventions and restrictions of rational thought. Pablo Picasso showed some of his works in “La Peinture Surréaliste” — the first collective exhibition of Surrealist painting — which opened at Paris’s Galerie Pierre in November of 1925. (Although Magritte is best known as one of the visual Surrealist movement’s most talented practitioners, his famous 1943 painting, The Fifth Season, can be interpreted as a formal break from Surrealism.)
The outbreak of World War II led many in the movement to flee Europe for the Americas, further spreading Surrealism abroad. Generations of modern and contemporary artists were subsequently influenced by the richly symbolic and unearthly imagery of Surrealism, from Joseph Cornell to Arshile Gorky.
Find a collection of original Surrealist paintings, sculptures, prints and multiples and more art on 1stDibs.