Research Questions/Intro
“There’s no way I’m going back to Mexico. I can’t stand to be in a country that is more surrealist than my paintings.” This quote by Salvador Dali, a famous painter, shows the consensus of Mexico throughout the European surrealist art community. There are similar quotes from multiple including the father of surrealism himself Andre Breton, the writer of the surrealist manifesto and the original creator of the term itself. There are several identifiable questions that could be associated with these quotes. What is surrealism? Why do these artists consider Mexico to be such a surreal country? Why did these artistic groups organize within Mexico City? How does the collaboration between artists on a global level, influence the works they create?h questions and which includes research questions]
Narrative/Overview
Before delving into the elements of surrealism that can be seen within Mexico, first we must look at the philosophy of the movement itself. The term, originally coined by Anton Breton in Manifesto of Surrealism, is a French reactionary movement related to the horrors of the first World War. When faced with the death, horrors, and economic ruin that came of France and much of Europe in the 20s following the war. Anton Breton as well has his devoted artistic followers decided to turn their back on reality, and escape into the subconscious in order to pull their art from their mind rather than facing the horrors of their day-to-day life. Within the original Manifesto we can see a distinct anger within Breton’s opinion toward reality, “At this point [man] feels extremely modest: he knows what women he had, what silly affairs he has been involved in; he is unimpressed by his wealth or his poverty, in this respect he is still a newborn babe and, as for the approval of his conscience, I confess that he does very nicely without it.” (Breton 1) Breton claims that a man being conscious of the unsatisfactory nature of his life will lead to a less satisfactory life, therefore he can do without it. Due to the poor economic state of Europe, as well as the countless lost lives, it’s easy see why surrealism spread so quickly amongst the densely populated continent. The philosophy spread on a global scale once the Second World War happened. Many disenfranchised artists and thinkers now forced to go elsewhere to avoid the violence and hatred that ravaged their home countries, many of them went elsewhere to the Americas, among other places. In an article regarding overseas migration from Europe following World War II, regarding Latin American immigration “there has been a pronounced drift to the cities in search of better employment even where initial settlement was made on the land.” (Kirk and Huyck 449) Among the Latin American cities we see a large amount of settlement to is Mexico City. To understand the draw of specifically surrealist painters to Mexico City, it’s important to look at surrealist elements of Mexico; these elements have been deeply imbedded in the culture for hundreds of years, long before the arrival of the surrealist painters.
Even before the European conquest of the New World, Mexico has had elements of surrealism within their art. Whilst this may not be surrealism in the way that it is formally defined as in Paris hundreds of years later, it cannot be ignored that this country has always strayed away from standard conventions of realism and other standard celebrated practices within the European art field. Perhaps this gravitation towards the supernatural is what originally captivated Parisian artists to the country. The Magazine article titled “Surrealism in Mexico” by publisher ArtForum points out that within folk art you can see “men with the shells of turtles, dogs wearing human masks, jaguars in scarves, arum flowers whose pistils are tiny men, geometrically shaped gods with large noses, and so on.” (Fauchereau, and Hannah) Andre Breton noticed these qualities and was very fond of Mexico because of them. In the article “André Breton in Mexico: Black Humor and Passion,” the author discusses a conversation he had with Breton’s widowed wife Elisa following his death. Elisa recalls Breton saying, “Part of my mental landscape, and by extension, part of Surrealism’s mental landscape, considers Mexico as a frontier.” (Andrade 106) You can see from this that Breton held Mexico in his mind very fondly; he commonly interacted with artists in the Americas, specifically the two surrealist hubs, New York and Mexico City. (Fauchereau and Hannah) While these two groups maintained good relations were some distinct differences between the two groups perceptions of surrealism.
Some of the European artists that were in the Mexico City scene included Wolfgang Paalen, Leonora Carrington, and Remedios Varo. Wolfgang Paalen, an abstract surrealist, specifically believed there were some key differences between Parisian orthodox surrealism prevalent in the New York hub and Mexican surrealism which was prominent in Mexico City. (Fauchereau and Hannah) Breton saw the separation of reason and the subconscious as crucial, Paalen believed you could still achieve a surrealist piece of work. Both schools of thought arose from a desire to disconnect from the violence and inherent inequality of the reality the artist faced. While Parisian Surrealism stemmed from the First World War, the Mexican Revolution brought on inspiration for Mexican Surrealism.
The Mexican Revolution took place between 1910 and 1920, roughly overlapping with World War I. It was an extremely bloody conflict resulting in the death of almost a million people to overthrow the dictatorial Porfirio Díaz who refused to abide by his promise to step down in 1910, after ruling Mexico for almost thirty years. Similar to World War I, the Revolution ushered in new concepts of politics and economics, including communist ideologies as well as surrealism in the cultural arena. These two schools of thought often came together, likely because they both observe the world we live in as a violent and unfair place. Mexico offered refuge to Trotsky, one of the founding members of the communist party of the Soviet Union, in 1936. Leon Trotsky was close with the artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Whilst Breton was in Mexico, he met with all of them. (Andrade 106) Part of surrealsim was its inclusion of women as a way to embrace social equality. Women such as Leonora Carrington and Frida Kahlo were some of the most influential and famous artists in the country. Not only did the ideology spread ideas of equality popular with both genders, but also to the workers within cities. Kahlo delved deep into her own psyche and some of the struggles she experienced as a woman. Although Kahlo does reject the notion that her works are surrealist on the basis that “They thought I was a Surrealist, but. I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” Although this doesn’t fit directly into the Parisian definition of Surrealism, it does go along with Paalen’s idea of Mexican surrealism in which reason and the subconscious aren’t distinctly different things.
In Kahlo’s “The Love Embrave of the Universe, the Earth, Myself, Diego and Senor Xolotl” we can see Rivera pictured as a baby being cradled by Kahlo while Kahlo is held by a godlike figure. Although this may not fit within the typical conventions of surrealism, it still has a strong level of detachment from reality. Pictured below
https://www.fridakahlo.org/the-love-embrace-of-the-universe.jsp#prettyPhoto[image1]/0/
Diego Rivera, although not a surrealist himself, associated with many surrealist painters such as Breton and Carrington. Diego Rivera was outspoken about his beliefs in the communist ideology. In the mural “Mexico Today and Tomorrow” we can see Karl Marx directing the workers to their duties rather than the businessmen pictured at the bottom. It’s important to note the fact that these workers and Marx are meant to be the first thing you see. Below is a link to an image of the mural.
The world movement of surrealism has spread vastly. You can see plenty of examples of surrealism influences throughout the world of art. Even if these utilizations of surrealism don’t fit perfectly within the original confines set by André Breton, that doesn’t mean that they don’t draw inspiration from such. Today we see inspirations for art from a multitude of sources and surrealism is just one example of this.
Primary Sources Annotated Bibliography
Breton, Andre. First Manifesto of Surrealism. University of Michigan Press, 1969.
Manifesto of Surrealism- Andre Breton (Pages 1-6) is what I could find on the internet
This is an crucial source for my piece, it is a description of surrealism directly from the brain that theorized it. I found that outside of academic sources the term surrealist’s meaning was diluted so I believe it’s important to have some thoughts from the Andre Breton to see where his head was at when he thought of the concept.
I utilize this source to define surrealism but also to give it some context within my piece. Andre Breton is also referenced in some of my other articles so I believe it’s crucial that I got some insight into his thought process.
“Category:Murals by Diego Rivera in the Palacio Nacional.” Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Murals_by_Diego_Rivera_in_the_Palacio_Nacional#/media/File:Murales_Rivera_-_Treppenhaus_7_Marx.jpg.
Diego Rivera, while not a surrealist had close ties to many in the community. His communist sympathies pushed forward my point regarding the ideology of those within the artistic movement within Mexico.
Kirl, Dudley, and Earl Huyck. “Overseas Migration from Europe Overseas Since World War II.” American Sociological Review, vol. 19, no. 4, Aug. 1954, pp. 447–456., www.jstor.org/stable/2087465?searchText=world+war+2+refugees&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dworld%2Bwar%2B2%2Brefugees&ab_segments=0%2FSYC-6744_basic_search%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A8cb5962b5c00bf6558e8089aec5bb7e4&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.
This journal discusses the immigration out of Europe following the war. This is another extremely important piece of evidence for my research kit as it tells specifically where Europeans immigrated from, why, and where they went. Specifically I used this to reference the movement to the city for these new refugees.
“The Love Embrace of the Universe,the Earth,Myself,Diego and Senor Xolotl,1949.” The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth(Mexico), Myself, Diego and Senor Xolotl, 1949 by Frida Kahlo, www.fridakahlo.org/the-love-embrace-of-the-universe.jsp#prettyPhoto[image1]/0/.
This is a painting by Frida Kahlo along with some description and context regarding the piece. This painting got across the point that within and around surrealist community many women thrived. Kahlo had many feminist messages within her works.
Secondary Sources Annotated Bibliography
Andrade, Lourdes, and John Page. “Mexico France: Mutual Fascinations.” Artes De México, 2003, pp. 106–107.
A peer reviewed academic journal regarding the artistic movements within Paris and France, specifically how artists within these 2 countries interacted and shared similarities. I am specifically interested in the section regarding Andre Breton’s visit to Mexico. The author of this section actually spoke to Andre Breton’s widow in the year 1992; she gives us specific insights into this trip and what specifically captivated him about Mexico.
Fauchereau, Serge, and Hanna Hannah. “Surrealism in Mexico.” ArtForum, Sept. 1986, pp. 86–92.
An article written for a magazine by a French Art critic and Professor at the Institut des Hautes Etudes en Arts Visuels, Paris. Also, a recently (Relative to the writing of this article) director of an art exhibit in Venice regarding the movement of Futurism. Translated by Hanna Hannah. Although I didn’t get this one off Jstor, google books, or the jmu library I thought it provided some very helpful insight into my topic.
I plan to use some of the information regarding surrealist artists at the time within this article as well as some insight into what may have interested them about Mexico to begin with.
Fernandez, Monica. “Mexico: A Surrealist Country.” FUSION, 27 Oct. 2015, www.fusionmagazine.org/mexico-a-surrealist-country/.
Fusion is Berklee college’s global arts magazine. Discusses Salvador Dalí quote that I use at the beginning of the paper.
“Frida Kahlo and Surrealism.” FridaKahlo, www.fridakahlo.org/link.jsp.
Contains some good information regarding surrealism. I specifically am using it for the Frida Kahlo quote regarding surrealism. I think it’s important to note that she’s not a self-declared surrealist, however she does showcase some surrealist elements within her paintings.
Glossary
Parisian Surrealism- The philosophy and style of art cultivated by André Breton. Focuses on a disconnect from reality, and valuing the subconscious over reason.
Mexican Surrealism- The variant of surrealism that was created within Mexico. Wolfgang Paalen, one of the creators, thought that the separation of reason and the subconscious was unnecessary therefore it’s not a distinct trait of Mexican Surrealism.
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