american surrealist photography

7/27/2019 American Surrealist Photography

1/4

American Surrealist PhotographyAuthor(s): Sheryl ConkeltonReviewed work(s):Source: MoMA, No. 16 (Winter - Spring, 1994), pp. 20-22Published by: The Museum of Modern ArtStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4381254 .

Accessed: 18/11/2012 00:28

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The Museum of Modern Artis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toMoMA.

http://www.jstor.org
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=momahttp://www.jstor.org/stable/4381254?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/4381254?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=moma


2/4

r \M ERI|CAI'IS tUaRxE rn recentyears, Surrealismhas been the focus of renewedscholarlynvestigation,muchof it directed oward edefiningthescopeandimpactof the movement.' n the midst of theseefforts,the role of AmericanSurrealism as been less-wellinvestigated, nd the roleof AmericanSurrealisthotographyhas been practically gnored.2The lack of in-depthresearchon thistopicisduein part o the fact hatSurrealismnAmer-

ica neverachieved he impetusor statusof an aestheticmovement.Nevertheless, ts dissemination n Americahad sustained ffect.TheexhibitionAmerican urrealist hotographyopeningApril 4), drawnfrom the Museum's ollection,is organizedas a survey ntendedtostimulateconsideration f the influenceof Surrealism n Americanphotographyrom 930 to the mid1950s.

In the wake of WorldWarI in Europe,Surrealism as formallyfoundedas a literarymovement n I924 butquicklyextended o oth-er art forms. Its leaders,amongthemAndreBreton,Louis Aragon,andPaulEluard, ntended o causearevolutionnthinking hatwoulddisrupt onventional deasand behavior ndreorganizehewayreali-ty was conceived.Surrealism'sentralmotif was the unconscious etfree romall strictures:he rational ndtheaverageweredenied n allaspects f life-political, social,psychological,exual.Great mphasiswasplacedon the idiosyncraticndanarchisticnventions f individ-uals,on personal nterpretationsather han consensual ymbolism.Photography arnered significantplacein Surrealist ractices,notleast or ts ability o seamlessly ombinedisparateubjects ndto cap-tureandcommunicate senseof theuncanny ncounter.

In the UnitedStates,whereSurrealism as necessarily n importand lacked he politicalmotivations ngendered y a devastatingwarandby the CommunistRevolution,Surrealistdeas were often bor-rowedwithoutconsideration f their politicalunderpinnings.Theywere used in tandemwith otheraesthetic nventions mported romEurope, nduding elements of Cubismand Constructivism, n anexploration f avant-gardedeasand formsrather han n strictadher-ence to any particular esthetic odes orallegiance o ideology.

The dissemination f Surrealistdeasand motifs in the UnitedStatesbeganabout1930 and wasmadethroughdirectcontactamongartists,bothEuropean ndAmerican.Very ewphotographersouredEurope:GeorgePlattLynes,BereniceAbbott,and WalkerEvanswereamong hosewho wentabroad nd becameacquaintedwithSurrealistartists uch as ManRayand PavelTchelitchew n Paris.Much moresignificantwas the emigration f European rtists leeingthe rise ofFascism n Europe n the 1930s. ManRay (whoreturned o the Unit-ed Statesaftermanyyears n Paris),MarcelDuchamp,YvesTanguy,KurtSeligmann, nd Max Ernsthadall cometo the United StatesbyI940; thephotographersohnGutmann,AndreKertesz, ndVladimirvon Telberghad alsoemigratedby that time. ManySurrealist rtistsvisited heUnitedStates, mong hem HenriCartier-Bresson,lbertoGiacometti,and SalvadorDalf. The presenceof the Surrealist rtistsgready nhanced he influenceof their deas.

Bytheearly 940s, Surrealist rthad been established s animpor-tantphenomenon n thiscountry,with exhibitions n museumsandgalleries-including The Museum of ModernArt, whose curator

Clarence ohnLaughlin.The nsect-Headed ombstone.953.Gelatin-silver rint. 35/8 x io7/8".JohnParkinsonii Fund.

Helen Levitt.Untitled.ca. I940. Gelatin-silver rint.13Y6 x 97W.Gift of the photographer.20

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.63 on Sun, 18 Nov 2012 00:28:53 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/4

HT R BYSHERYLONKELTONJamesThrallSoby was the first to exhibit a number of Surrealistartists, ndthe JulienLevyGallery,whichshowcased he workof Sur-realistphotographers. everal eriodicals ommingledEuropean ndAmericanSurrealist ork;mostimportant mongthesewereCharlesHenriFord'sViewandthe magazineVVVeditedbytheartistDavidHare. Both magazines ncluded reproductions f photographsbyphotographersuch asLynes,ManRay,Clarence ohnLaughlin, ndMayaDeren,aswell as articlesaboutphotography. he variousandlively connectionsamong literarycliques, publishingcircles,andartisticgroupsallowed or a broadexchangeof aesthetic xperiencesandphilosophies.

The impactof Surrealismn Americanphotographyaneasilybeseen in the appropriation f Surrealistmotifs and techniques hatmadefamiliar ubjects eemstrangeand thatexpressed spiritof theineffable.These included dramatic ighting, the fragmentation ffigures,pastiche,andmontage,as well as the depictionof objects nunexpected ontextsor in strangeuxtapositions.The remotepastorforeigncultureswereoften conjured romdistinctlyahistorical le-ments.Mundanedetailswere ocuseduponwithobsession; eforma-tion anddecaywerefrequent hemes.Humanfiguresweresuggestedin the manipulationof mannequins,dolls, and clothing forms inunconventional ndbizarremises-en-scene.

Photographers ith commercial ssignments agerlymadeuse ofavant-gardelements and portrayed heirSurrealist riends n pho-tographs or literaryand commercialmagazines.Lynes,who knewmany Europeanavant-gardewritersand artists, utilizeddramatic

lightingandSurrealist rops nphotographsommissioned romhimby magazines.Horst P. Horst, who, like Lynes,photographed ormagazines ndwasacquaintedwithanumberof Surrealistrtists, re-atedafashionablefrissonn hisphotographswithobjects akenout oftheirexpectedcontext,suchasfood itemsusedascostumedetail.

The exploration f the individualunconsciousand the recogni-tion of the self, as embodied in Freudiananalysis,were importantSurrealistenets,articulated ybothwriters ndvisualartists.A num-berof Americanphotographersecreatedmages romtheir magina-tions in an exploration f theirpsyches.Laughlinrecreated is ownmentalpicturesof anobsessively omanticized outh:strange igureswalkedamongantebellum uinsor posed in bizarreableaux hathetitledwitheccentric aptions.Frederickommer onstructed ollagesof strange oundobjects hat had threatening vertones.DerenandValTelberg alledupon theirknowledgeof film, and usedmontagetechniques ortheirability o layer mageryn emulationof thevisu-al qualityof fragmentary nd obscurememories.In differentways,eachphotographerreated partly onjured,partly xperienced uto-biographyn a personallyymbolic ynthesis.

This qualityof personaland obscure ignificance lsoimpartedasenseof the uncanny o imagesby photographers ho worked out-side the studioand who avoided the obviousmanipulations f thedarkroom.Abbott and Evanswere primarilyconcerned with thesophisticated escriptionof the facts of a situation,but both some-timesallowedSurrealistlements o creep nto their mages.Surreal-ism alsoaffected heirwayof working;rather han seekingsubjects

BereniceAbbott.Portrait f theArtist s a YoungWoman. a. 1930.Gelatin-silver rint. 2 'Y6X IO Yg".Acquiredwith matching undsprovidedby FrancesKeech n honorof MonroeWheeler.

Frederick ommer.ArizonaLandscape.943.Gelatin-silverrint. 7 5/8 x 9 2A". ift of the photographer.

21



4/4

thatcouldyieldstriking ompositions, hey affected Surrealist-influ-enced awarenesshat does not seekany particularhingbut is opento what the streetmayhave to offerandto the possibilityof makingan imageautomaticallyndunconsciously.Relationshipsendered ythe camera ouldanimate tillobjects; nigmaticgestures ouldpro-posesublimeaspects.Similarly,Helen Levittrecognizedheuncannyspectacle n children's layandin the unselfconscious isplayof peo-ple in the street.Photographersike MinorWhite andAaronSiskindattempted ophotograph heirunconscious mpulsesby becomingmoreopen andalmost meditative n their looking.As in the contemporarymove-ment in Americanpainting,Surrealistoncepts nformedexpressiveabstractionn photography. hotographersiscovered bstracthapesin ordinaryobjectsandin common landscapes hatsuggested omepersonalsymbolism throughtheir arrangement f light and dark,weightyand etherealmasses.Theworld becamea vehicle or the rev-elation of their secretemotional ives;subjectsencounteredwith anopenmindyielded ignificance: pieceof stringbecamea drawing,frosted window became a shadowy morph that waveredbetweenbenignand threatening esture.

The willingness o invent through apprehension f the chanceand the idiosyncratic asbeenpartof photographyince the inven-tion of faster ilms andequipmentenabledquick response.Surrealistattitudesanimated hiscapabilitywitha recognition f the impactofthe unknowable ubjectand its portrayal.n the I92oS, prior o Sur-realist nfluences,the dominant aspirationof Americanphotogra-pherswas expressedn the modernist ompositions f photographerssuch as Paul Strand,Alfred Stieglitz, and others. Their images,whetherdepictionsof particular ubjectsor abstractions btainedthroughvariousmanipulations f the camera,all subscribedo andcelebrated kind of logic. Depictionsof asubjectweremeantto cre-ate a knowledgeof the subject,and abstractions roceededout of

rationalexperimentationwith both the cameraand the darkroomprocesses.

Surrealism ot onlycommunicated he notion of chanceas valu-ableto Americanphotography,ut also nsinuated hatanencountercould havea logicof its own that couldin turn be inventedand cap-turedbyaphotograph.The uncanny mage, rreducible nd oblique,obtaineda value and waspursued or its own sake as an objectthatheld a unique experience.Surrealism njected a new energy intoimage-making;ts incorporation nto American photographywascomplex, and, while the ideashavelong since movedbeyondtheirSurrealistounds, he consciousness f a photograph s an inventionof experience ontinues o inspirephotographers ho pursue magesthat testcomplacency ndcomplicate onventional ationales.FromGarryWinogrand's utomatictranscription f his unconsciousinconfrontationwith the outer world to Cindy Sherman's ggressiveexplorationsfsexualmagery,urrealisthilosophiesf self-conscious-nessand critique ontinueto be a force n Americanphotography.AllphotographsolectionTheMuseum fModernArt.

SherylConkeltons an AssociateCuratorn theDepartmentfPhotography.heorganized mericanSurrealist hotography, nviewat theMuseumromApril 4 through uly5, I994.

Maya Deren. Portrait of Caro janeway 943.Gelatin-silver rint. O/8 X UN3/".Gift of JudithMallin-Youngn memoryof CarolJaneway.

i. Many writershave contributed o recentexhibitioncatalogues nd bookson new interpreta-tionsof Surrealist rt,among hemWhitneyChadwick WomenArtistsnd theSurmralistovement.Boston:Little,Brown, 985),RosalindKrauss ndJaneLivingston LAmour osePhotographyndSurrealism. Washington, D.C.: Corcoran Gallery of Art and New York. AbbevillePress,1985), nd SidraStich(AnxiousVisions, urrealistArt, erkeley,CA: University f Cali-forniaand New York:AbbevillePress,ggo).2. Fora discussion f American urrealismee JeffreyWechsler, urrealismndAmericanArt1931-1947, New Brunswick,NJ: Rutgers University, I977. For the most recent but still cursorydescription f AmericanSurrealist hotography, ee BelindaRathbone,"Fotograffa surrealismoen America,"El surrealismntreVieqo NuevoMundo,Las Palmasde Gran Canaria:El CentroAtlanticode Arte Moderno,1989.

22


american surrealist photography

Documents