Understanding surrealism paintings

[Yazeed]

I have problems understanding surrealism paintings. Most of the time I get
confused. How do we actually interpret or analyse a surrealist painting to
understand it's meanings? Are the interpretations of a surreal painting the
same as a dream interpretation? If so, can a book on dream interpretations
help on the symbolic images of a surreal painting?

[elag]

I would start with SURREALISM AND PAINTING (LE SURRÉALISME ET LE
PEINTURE) 1926, by Andre Breton.

[Brandon J. Freels]

There is no such thing as a "true" interpretation. Forget about it.
---BJF

Yazeed wrote in message <79muqk$2c6$1...@newton.pacific.net.sg>...

[CHENNO]

There is no such thing as a "true" interpretation. Forget about it.
---BJF

I could not agree more:)

CHENNO ôżô

Painting is silent poetry, and poetry painting that speaks. - Simonides

[barrett john erickson]

Yazeed wrote in message <79muqk$2c6$1...@newton.pacific.net.sg>...
>I have problems understanding surrealism paintings. Most of the time I get
>confused. How do we actually interpret or analyse a surrealist painting to
>understand it's meanings? Are the interpretations of a surreal painting the
>same as a dream interpretation? If so, can a book on dream interpretations
>help on the symbolic images of a surreal painting?

i don't think it is at all advisable to "interpret" the paintings of
surrealists in the sense of trying to find their "true" meaning. "meaning"
is not something the artist puts into the work, but something the "viewer"
creates in his/her reaction to the work -- which completes the "art"
process.

the "viewer" as an equally significant co-creator of art is a concept
originally put forward by Duchamp, which i think most surrealists would be
quick to accept.

that said, i think the best text i've seen on such matters is:

The Imagery if Surrealism
by J.H. Matthews

also commendable for its attention to post-WWII artists.

-- barrett

bar...@MagneticFields.org
http://www.MagneticFields.org/

"Everything tends to make us believe that there exists a certain point of
the mind at which life and death, the real and the imagined, past and
future, the communicable and the incommunicable, high and low, cease to be
perceived as contradictions."

...André Breton

[ubujean-ja...@wanadoo.fr]

On Mon, 08 Feb 1999 23:10:35 +0800, "Yazeed" <a...@pacific.net.sg>
wrote:

>I have problems understanding surrealism paintings. Most of the time I get
>confused. How do we actually interpret or analyse a surrealist painting to
>understand it's meanings? Are the interpretations of a surreal painting the
>same as a dream interpretation? If so, can a book on dream interpretations
>help on the symbolic images of a surreal painting?

it is of great help to turn the painting agazinst the wall, and look
at the canvass for a few years.

In the same time, every day minimum you think to what was the
painting, why, how and so on.

after a will, tou can see it, you will absolutely understant it.

.

Celui qui a raison est celui qui n'a jamais tué. (A.C.)

Enlevez ubu pour répondre.