Art & the Surreal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Art & the Surreal - Essay Example One of the most famous surrealists is Salvadore Dali, a Spanish artist who expressed himself in making photographic sketches that presenting irrational objects. Swans Reflecting Elephants is one amazing work of Dali which pictures swans swimming on a lake whose reflections in the water appear like elephants. Showing the main features of a surrealist work of art, Dali juxtaposed the beauty and serenity seen in swans to the heavy appearance of the beast of burden, the elephant. Other contrasting images in the painting are the dark, nightmarish images in and around the lake with the use of colors, and the bright, cloudless sky behind the lake. This style arouses the imagination of viewers with the artist intentionally making use of the subconscious in the hope of awakening the totality of a person (Duiker 84). The extreme presentations of the expressions of surrealist artists in their art works intend to shock its viewers into facing the realities of life. Aside from paintings and sculp tors, surreal ideas were also expressed in literary forms. However, though in a different expression, the views are similarly seen in poets’ literary styles.