FA 302 Surrealism in Art and Film

Howe & Michalczyk

Tuesday, 3-5:30
Spring 1998

In this course we will explore the meanings and historical development of surrealist art in its many forms. Prof. John Michalczyk will focus on the critical study of surrealism in film and literature, and Prof. Jeffery Howe will explore the manifestations of surrealism in the visual arts. We are very fortunate to have the exhibition Visionary States, Surrealist prints from the Gilbert Kaplan Collection, in the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College for the duration of this course. These master prints, representing all the major surrealist artists, will be an integral part of our study.

There will be a public film series accompanying this exhibition; films will be shown in Higgins 304 or 307, Thursdays at 7 pm.

Jan. 22
Luis Bunuel: The Andalusian Dog (Un Chien Andalou), 1928
Luis Bunuel: L'Age d'Or (The Golden Age), 1930

Jan. 29
Luis Bunuel: Cet Obscur Objet du Desir (That Obscure Object of Desire), 1977

Feb. 5
Ingmar Bergman: Wild Strawberries, 1957

Feb. 12
Bruno Barreto: Dona Flor and her two Husbands, 1976

Texts:

Surrealism (European Perspectives) by Jacqueline Chenieux-Gendron, Vivian Folkenflik (Translator). Columbia Univ Pr, 1994

Surrealism (World of Art) by Patrick Waldberg. Thames & Hudson, 1997

Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement by Whitney Chadwick. Thames & Hudson, 1991

Dali (World of Art) by Dawn Ades. Thames & Hudson, 1995

Magritte by Suzi Gablik. Thames & Hudson, 1985

Nadja by Andre Breton. Grove Press, 1988

WWW Resources:

Web page for the course:
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/surreal/

Art and Art History Links on the Fine Arts Department home page:
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/Artweb.html

Course Requirements

2 papers, midterm exma ( March 10), one final paper/project

Course attendance is extremely important, and will be expected.

Sequence of Lectures:

January

13Definitions and Method: Issues and Themes

Readings:
"The Paths of Surrealism", Waldberg, Surrealism, pp. 1-45.
André Breton, "First Surrealist Manifesto (1924)," in Waldberg, Surrealism, pp. 66-75.
J. Chenieux-Gendron, Surrealism, ch. 1.
Whitney Chadwick, ch. 1, "Search for a Muse," Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement, pp. 13-65.

Reserve Readings:
Tyler Stovall, "Paris in the Age of Anxiety," in Sidra Stich, Anxious Visions, pp. 201-221.

FILM: Dali/Bunuel, Andalusian Dog

20Prologue: Visionary Art

Art and the unconscious -- Symbolist Art -- Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon
Art and literature -- Symbolist poetry; Apollinaire
Surrealist Poetry

Readings:
poetry (photocopies)
J. Chenieux-Gendron, Surrealism, ch. 2.

Reserve Readings:
Bergman-Carton, J. "The Medium is the Medium: Jules Bois, Spiritualism, and the Esoteric Interests of the Nabis, Arts Magazine, vol. 61, 4, 1986, December, 24-29.
Giorgio di Chirico, dream, in in Marcel Jean, ed., The Autobiography of Surrealism, pp. 165-166.

VISIT Museum Exhibition: Visionary States

27 The Object of Art: Duchamp and Dada

Readings:
J. Chenieux-Gendron, Surrealism, ch. 3, "History of the Movement," pp. 29-70.

Reserve Readings:
Marcel Duchamp, interview with James Johnson Sweeney, in in Marcel Jean, ed., The Autobiography of Surrealism, pp. 412-414.
Raymond Roussel, Impressions of Africa, excerpts, in Marcel Jean, ed., The Autobiography of Surrealism, pp. 319-324.
John Golding, Duchamp: The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even, N.Y., 1972.
Sarane Alexandrian, Surrealist Art, chapter 2, "Anti-Art."
Albert Elsen, Origins of Modern Sculpture, Pioneers and Premises, pp. 11-38, 52-64, 154-157.
Max Ernst, The Hundred Headed Headless Woman, browse.

FILM: Anemic Cinema, and other Dada films

February

3The Great Divide: World War I and Art

Readings:

RESERVE READINGs:
Helena Lewis, The Politics of Surrealism, ch. 1, "Introduction: Dada and the Great War," pp. 1-16.
Modris Eksteins, Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age, ch. 7, "Journey to the Interior," pp. 208-238.
A. Breton, "What is Surrealism?" (1934), in F. Rosemont, ed., What is Surrealism?, pp. 112-141.
Jeffery Howe, An Art of Vision: Belgian Art (manuscript), pp. 140-144.
Otto Dix, exhibition catalog, Tate Gallery, London, 1992. Browse.

FILM:

10Dadamax: Max Ernst

Readings:
J. Chenieux-Gendron, Surrealism, ch. 3, "History of the Movement," pp. 71-90.
Max Ernst, Beyond Painting, excerpts, in Waldberg, Surrealism, pp. 96-100.

Reserve Readings:
A. Breton, catalog essay on Max Ernst, 1921, in Marcel Jean, ed., The Autobiography of Surrealism, pp. 76-77.
S. Alexandrian, Surrealist Art, chapters 3-5.
Ernst, "Beyond Painting," in Waldberg, pp. 96-97.
Max Ernst, The Hundred Headless Woman, facsimile volume, browse.
Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," in Illuminations, pp. 217 - 252.
Evan Maurer, "Dada and Surrealism," in Primitivism In 20th Century Art, vol. II, pp. 535-593.

FILM: Leger, Ballet Mecanique

17 Surrealism: The Awakening Unconscious -- Robots and Doubles of Consciousness

Readings:
Dawn Ades, Dali, chs. 1-2.
Andre Breton: Second Surrealist Manifesto, in Waldberg, Surrealism, pp. 76-80.
L. Aragon, A. Breton, "The Quinquagenary of Hysteria," in Waldberg, Surrealism, pp. 61-62.
Breton, "The Exquisite Corpse," in Waldberg, pp. 93-96.
Andre Breton, Nadja. Start reading.
Freud, "The Uncanny," xerox.

FILM: Metropolist / Blade Runner

24 Surrealism: Salvador Dali and the Enigma of Vision

Readings:
Dawn Ades, Dali, chs. 3-5, 7.
Breton, "Decalcomania...," in Waldberg, pp. 87-88.
Dali, "Conquest of the Irrational," in Waldberg, pp. 91-92.

Reserve Readings:
S. Dali, "The Spectral Surrealism of the Pre-Raphaelite Eternal Feminine," in Marcel Jean, ed., The Autobiography of Surrealism, p. 339.
S. Dali, "The Putrescent Donkey," in Marcel Jean, ed., The Autobiography of Surrealism, pp. 267-268.
S. Alexandrian, Surrealist Art, chapters 6-8.

FILM: TBA

March

10 Midterm exam
Surrealist Films

Readings:
Dawn Ades, "Dali and the Cinema," Dali, ch. 7.

Reserve Readings:
Linda Williams, "Un Chien Andalou," Figures of Desire. A Theory and Analysis of Surrealist Film, Univ. of California Press, 1981, pp. 53-105.
Manifesto on L'Age d'Or, 1931, in F. Rosemont, What is Surrealism, pp. 327-328.
Kovacs, "The Poets Dream of Movies," in Stich, Anxious Visions, pp. 201-222.
Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, "An Andalusian Dog," in Lucy Lippard, ed., Surrealists on Art, pp. 102-107.
Picabia, "Entr'acte," in Lucy Lippard, ed., Surrealists on Art, p. 187.

FILM: L'Age d'Or, Los Olvidados

17 René Magritte: Words and Images

Readings:
Suzi Gablik, Magritte, chs. 1-4, 8.
Suzi Gablik, Magritte, chs. 6,7,10.
Reserve Readings:
Jeffery Howe, An Art of Vision: Belgian Art (manuscript), pp. 145-186.
David Sylvester, Magritte. The Silence of the World, N.Y., 1992, pp. 1-29.
Breton, "The Crisis of the Object," in Waldberg, pp. 85-87.

24 Paul Delvaux and others

Reserve Readings:
David Scott, Paul Delvaux, Surrealizing the Nude, ch. 2, "Anxieties of the Artist," pp. 37-56; ch. 3, "Phases of the Moon and the Sleeping Venus," pp. 57-64; ch. 4, "Surrealist Academicism," pp. 65-79.
Joan Miro, "Two Statements," "The Harlequin's Carnival, " in Lucy Lippard, ed., Surrealists on Art, pp. 172-173.
Matta, "Sensitive Mathematics -- Architecture of Time," "Hellucinations," in Lucy Lippard, ed., Surrealists on Art, pp. 167-171.

31 Surrealism and Photography

Readings:
Waldberg, Surrealism; browse.

Reserve Readings:
Dawn Ades, Photomontage, pp. 2-24.
Rosalind Krauss, L'Amour fou: Photography and Surrealism, N.Y., 1985, pp. 15-114.
Maud Lavin, Cut With the Kitchen Knife: The Weimar Photomontages of Hanna Hoch, "Introduction," pp. 1-12; ch. 1, "The Berlin Dada Photomontages," pp. 13-46.
Man Ray, "Photography is not Art," "Photography as Consolation," in Lucy Lippard, ed., Surrealists on Art, pp. 193-195.

April

7 Surrealism and Women I

Readings:
Whitney Chadwick, ch. 2: "The Muse as Artist," Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement, pp. 166-102; ch 3: "Revolution and Sexuality," pp. 103-140.

Reserve Readings:
Rudolf E. Kuenzli, "Surrealism and Misogyny," in Surrealism and Women, ed. by Mary Ann Caws, R. Kuenzli, Gwen Raaberg, Cambridge, MA, 1991, pp. 17-26.
Hans Bellmer, "The Birth of the Doll," in Lucy Lippard, ed., Surrealists on Art, pp. 63-66.
Hans Bellmer, "Commentary on the Doll," in Marcel Jean, ed., The Autobiography of Surrealism, pp. 304-305.
Patrick Werkner, Egon Schiele, Art, Sexuality, and Viennese Modernism, 1993, "The Child Woman and Hysteria: Images of the Female Body in the Art of Schiele, in Viennese Modernism, and Today," pp. 50-78.

FILM: TBA

14 Art and Politics

Readings:
J. Chenieux-Gendron, Surrealism, ch. 3, "History of the Movement," pp. 90-110, ch. 4, "High Stakes and their Actualization.

Reserve Readings:
Helena Lewis, The Politics of Surrealism, ch. 2, pp. 17-36.

FILM: TBA

21 Visit MIT Museum exhibition, "Women Surrealists from Frida Kahlo to Kiki Smith"

Readings:
Whitney Chadwick, Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement, ch. 4: "The Female Earth: Nature and the Imagination," pp. 141-180; ch. 5: "Women Artists and the Hermetic Tradition," pp. 181-218.

28 The Legacy of Surrealism

Readings:
J. Chenieux-Gendron, Surrealism, ch. 5.
Whitney Chadwick, Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement, ch. 6, "Cycles of Narrative Fantasy," pp. 219-237.

Reserve Readings:

FILM: TBA