Magic realisman artistic genre in which magical elements or illogical scenarios appear in an otherwise realistic or even "normal"

setting. It has been widely used in relation to literature, art, and film.

What happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something 'too strange to believe‘?

If we stop to take a look…… what is the difference between

Surrealism and Magic Realism?

The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali 1931

L'Ange du Foyer ou le Triomphe du Surréalisme by Max Ernest 1937

Surrealism

The aim is to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality."

Magical Realism…..

Art where magical elements

or illogical scenarios appear in an otherwise

realistic or even "normal" setting.

Frida Kahlo, Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940

Paintings are rooted in the real world

but also contain

fabulous elements, and the real and the fantastic

interweave in a seamless manner.

Frida Kahlo, Tree of Hope 1946

Magic Realism developed as an art movement in the years after World War I.

•A return to mundane subjects as opposed to fantastical ones.

•A juxtaposition of forward movement with a sense of distance, as opposed to Expressionism's tendency to foreshorten the subject.

•A use of miniature details even in expansive paintings, such as large landscapes.

Often typified by remarkable detail and sharp focus.

Yet more importantly Magic Realism taps into emotional reservoirs within all of us.

Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth (1948)

Two important influences on Magic Realism  came from the Henri Rousseau and Giorgio de Chirico.

Henri Rousseau

Giorgio de Chirico

Tropical Landscape- An American Indian Struggling with a Gorilla, Henri Rousseau

Magic Realism is a type of realism using contemporary subjects, often in cool detachment and sometimes injecting an eerie atmosphere.

Juxtapositions of sharply rendered and detailed elements, both in the foreground and background, are used to develop an air of mystery or ambiguity

In magical realism we find the transformation of the common and the everyday into the awesome and the unreal. It is predominantly an art of surprises.

Magic Realism acted as a portal to Surrealism, and later also influenced High Realism and Contemporary Realism

Time exists in a kind of  timeless fluidity and the unreal happens as part of reality.

Magic realism is characterized by the mingling and juxtaposition of the realistic and the fantastic, bizarre and skillful time shifts,  convoluted and even labyrinthine narratives and plots, miscellaneous use of dreams, myths and fairy stories, expressionistic and even surrealistic description, arcane erudition, the elements of surprise or abrupt shock, the horrific and the inexplicable

Magical realism is characterized by two conflicting perspectives, one based on a rational view of reality and the other on the acceptance of the supernatural as prosaic reality

Magical realism differs from pure fantasy primarily because it is set in a normal, modern world with authentic descriptions of humans and society.

Surrealists - try to discover and portray that which is above or superior to the “real” through the use of techniques such as automatic writing, hypnosis and dreaming

Magical Realists - portray the real world itself as having marvelous aspects inherent in it.