The Surrealism Website A visual database of Surrealist art
Organised by Adam McLean adam@alchemywebsite.com - Updated 25 July 2021
Surrealism is one of the most significant of art movements. Though established some ninety years ago in the mid 1920s,
Surrealism continues to inspire contemporary artists and has a considerable influence on popular culture.
It is, however, much misunderstood, and its reputation seems to have come to rest on a small number of artists,
Dali, Magritte, Delvaux, Ernst, et al., whose works are widely reprinted in compendia and popular art books. These have
become emblematic of Surrealism with the consequent neglect of many important artists and their artwork.
This Surrealism Website will be an attempt to widen our view of Surrealism, and provide resources for a deeper study
of this important art style and the later art movements which branched off from the original surrealist group.
I also consider it of primary importance that in order to appreciate an artist's work we must see it in historical sequence. This shows the development in styles and engagement with particular themes. Sadly far too many art web sites merely put up a melange of images and it is impossible to find any context. I have tried to find datings for most of an artist's work.
At the moment there are four main ways on this site for exploring Surrealism:-
A series of video lessons on Surrealism (25 to date)
Slide shows of a good representative selection of an artist's work
A series of virtual exhibitions with a commentary on the artworks
Analysis and commentary on different aspects of Surrealist painting
This site primarily presents surrealist paintings, though I will include a few drawings, etchings and lithographs where these were a significant component of an artist's output.
Most surrealist artworks remain under copyright of the artist or their estate. This non-commercial Surrealism Website only uses low resolution images, widely publicly available on the Internet, for the puposes of education and scholarly comment under the Fair Use and Fair Dealing provisions of the copyright legislations.
This site is currently actively under development and much new material will be added over the coming years. Priority is being given to originating the galleries of artists. There still remains a core of major artists to include and also hundreds of other surrealist inspired artists. The site should be substantially complete by the end of 2022. Items are being added every few days, when time permits. In summer 2021 there were over 200 artists represented.