Drawing Surrealism
Drawing Surrealism explores the significance of drawing and works on paper to surrealist innovation. Long considered the medium of exploration and innovation, drawing was set free from its associations with other media and valued as a predominant means of expression and innovation with the advent of surrealism. Automatic drawings, exquisite cadavers, decalcomania, frottage, and collage, for example, are just a few of the processes invented by surrealists as means to tap into the subconscious realm.
The exhibition examines the impact of surrealist drawing on a global scale, with approximately 200 works representing 90 artists from 16 countries. Drawing today is in many ways indebted to the expansive and innovative approach to artistic creation and the primacy of drawing encouraged by surrealism. For contemporary artists, drawing is a process more than a medium; it functions as a metaphor for experimentation and innovation that defies any strict material definition. The inclusion of drawing-based projects by contemporary artists Alexandra Grant, Mark Licari, and Stas Orlovski, conceived specifically for the exhibition, aims to elucidate the diverse and enduring vestiges of surrealist drawing.
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This exhibition was co-organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, and was supported in part by LACMA’s Prints and Drawings Council. Additional funding was provided by Erika Glazer and Myron Laskin. The publication was made possible in part by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Image: Federico Castellón, Her Eyes Trembled, gift of the 2006/2007 Drawings Group © Federico Castellón Estate, Digital Image © 2012 Museum Associates/LACMA.
Drawing Surrealism at LACMA
The inclusion of drawing-based projects by contemporary artists Alexandra Grant, Mark Licari, and Stas Orlovski, conceived specifically for the exhibition, aims to elucidate the diverse and enduring vestiges of surrealist drawing.
Drawing Surrealism: Techniques of the Sublime
Surrealism evokes bizarre, dreamlike imagery and complex psychological allusions, yet the creative methods employed by many surrealist artists couldn’t have been more ordinary and accessible. Drawing Surrealism highlights the surrealist use of drawing-based techniques, such as automatic drawing, frottage, collage, the game of exquisite corpse, and decalcomania, as means to bypass the rational mind and tap into the subconscious realm. While the names of some of these techniques may be unfamiliar, the techniques themselves are probably not. In fact, you may have well practiced them as a child...
Datamoshing Surrealism
The latest in our Artists Respond series is by Antonio Mendoza and a French artist known as Jimpunk. Inspired by Drawing Surrealism, the two artists are collaborating from afar, creating a video mashup that transforms found material into a dynamic ongoing video collage that changes daily. The project is called Dysleksic...
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