A-Level Essay On Surrealism For Free Use

In many ways, Surrealism sought to turn realistic representation on its head. The Surrealist artists wanted to use the unconscious as a path for releasing the force of the imagination. Taking much of their inspiration from the then-new field of psychoanalysis, Surrealists thought that reason only limited the imagination’s power by drenching it with the rules of society. Surrealists used Sigmund’s Freud studies of dreams as their launching point, as he was one of the very first thinkers to recognize the possibility of dreams and look at the unconscious as a valid release point of human desire and emotion.
One of the most well-known Surrealist painters was Salvador Dali, and The Persistence of Memory is one of the most well-known paintings in the Surrealist body of work, with its melted clocks an iconic sign of the impact of dreams and memory on the movement. When it comes to new technology, the different ways to represent what one imagines coming from the world of dreams are literally without limit. In the day of Dali, these representations were largely limited to two dimensions, but thanks to the technology of video recording, holograms and other media, there is literally no restriction on representation other than what the artist can conceive. This makes the movement a vital element in the art world, because dreams are something that fascinates us from early childhood and remains with us through the vast majority of our lives. Even when we get to a point where we no longer dream that often, that powerful memory from earlier life stays with us, and the use of technology and other means to represent dreams makes Surrealism a movement that will stay with us.