Tracing back Surrealism

Surrealism, a cultural movement born in Paris between the two World Wars, is known for the subversive visual artworks and writings of its disciples. These sought to break down the boundaries of rationality and irrationality, while exploring the resources and revolutionary energies of dreams, hallucinations and sexual desire. Artists and writers blamed the excessive rationalistic mentality and praise of bourgeois values for causing World War I and a deep crisis in Western culture. They rejected artistic tradition and formed an anti-rational, anti-social movement, Dadaism, which later evolved to Surrealism, under the leadership of André Breton, (Surrealist Manifesto, 1924) inspired by the psychoanalytical discoveries of Freud, (although Freud himself doubted their interpretation of his work) and Marxism.
Surrealism offered a ‘new’ way of perceiving the world: expressing psychological facts by removing ordinary objects from their usual environment and isolating them into an ‘imaginary’ world, accentuating their symbolic significance or insignificance by maximizing the visual impact on the viewer and evoking a feeling of ‘empathy’. Its adepts used unconventional techniques: automatic writing in literature, a dream-like perception of space and dream-inspired symbols in painting (artists Salvador Dali, Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst and Rene Magritte…etc)
The current exhibition, “The Subversion of Images, Surrealism, Photography and Film” (23rd September 2009 – 11th January 2010) held at the Centre National George Pompidou in Paris, reminds us of the importance of the Surrealist movement. Among the four hundred works presented, one will find iconic photographs from Man Ray, Hans Bellmer and Claude Cahun, films by Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau, as well as collages by Paul Eluard, André Breton and Antonin Artaud.
However, Surrealism spread over to other means of artistic expression like fashion illustration and fashion.
Paul Poiret was the first modern designer to work with Avant-garde artists: in 1925, the cover of the subversive magazine “La Revolution Surréaliste” featured a model wearing a Poiret dress, photographed by Man Ray.
Chanel and Schiaparelli, the two main Couturières of the 1920’s–1930’s, were also seduced by Surrealist art, which they translated into their collections.
Coco Chanel was friends with many artists of her time, like Tamara de Lempicka, Picasso, Cocteau, Stravinsky and Dali, among others. She designed costumes for Cocteau’s plays (he, in turn, designed many of her textiles) and Diaghilev and Stravinsky ballets. Some of her recurring themes were typically surrealistic: shell motifs used on hats and turbans and sea-horse brooches used on jewellery.
However, the only devout Surrealist was Elsa Schiaparelli who right from her first sweaters, created in 1927, used trompe-l’oeil effects, flirted with transparency and turned the body inside out (‘skeleton sweater’ which looked like an X-ray). She also liked unconventional materials: cellophane, rayon, rough silk, newspaper prints on fabrics and rhodophane plastic zips, and new combinations like gold embroidery on rough linen. 
Schiaparelli liked the wit and surprise effect of Surrealism, which corresponded to her own natural fancifulness. She is most remembered for her famous “Shocking Pink” and for her “Shocking” perfume, its bottle having been designed by Surrealist painter Léonor Fini. Schiaparelli introduced “thematic collections” (like her 1938 Astrology Zodiac collection) and fashion shows as “performance art”.  She cooperated with famous artists Christian Berard and Jean Cocteau, but her most rewarding partnership was with Salvador Dali.
Dali had been preoccupied with the Surrealist theme of “body parts” and disassociation, since 1934. Greatly influenced by Dali’s recurring theme of the ‘drawer’, Schiaparelli created suits and coats with drawer pockets and black plastic handles (1936-1937). Dali’s ‘erotic’ lobster (Lobster Telephone, 1936) was also reproduced onto Schiap’s ‘Lobster Dress’ in 1937, and famously worn by Wallis Simpson, future duchess of Windsor. Likewise, a photo of Salvador Dali wearing a shoe on his head inspired her to create her iconic “Shoe Hat” (Winter 1937-1938 collection).
One of Schiap’s most symbolic creations, the “Tear dress” (1936) was inspired by Dali’s painting “Three Young Surrealist Women Holding in Their Arms the Skins of an Orchestra” (1938). The fabric is torn and thus indistinguishable from the flesh,  blending skin and garment. The trompe-l’oeil effect conveys the violence of the upcoming World War, already announced by the Spanish Civil War.
As shown in the exhibition, talented photographers like Man Ray were interested in fashion and advertising and worked for magazines like American Vogue and Harpers Bazaar. Others like Cecil Beaton and Horst P. Horst, created surrealistic settings for photo shoots. Dali and Berard also contributed fashion illustrations and advertisements for magazines.
Surrealism continues to inspire today’s designers like Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, Marc Jacobs, Vivienne Westwood, Viktor&Rolf and milliners like Stephen Jones, who enjoy the humourous, erotic and provocative effect of  the“seemingly” incongruous use of objects. 
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