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Why Surrealism Matters
An elegant consideration of the Surrealist movement as a global phenomenon and why it continues to resonate
Why does Surrealism continue to fascinate us a century after André Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism? How do we encounter Surrealism today? Mark Polizzotti vibrantly reframes the Surrealist movement in contemporary terms and offers insight into why it continues to inspire makers and consumers of art, literature, and culture.
Polizzotti shows how many forms of popular media can thank Surrealism for their existence, including Monty Python, Theatre of the Absurd, and trends in fashion, film, and literature. While discussing the movement’s iconic figures—including André Breton, Leonora Carrington, Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Man Ray, and Dorothea Tanning—he also broadens the traditionally French and male-focused narrative, constructing a more diverse and global representation. And he addresses how the Surrealists grappled with ideas that mirror current concerns, including racial and economic injustice, sexual politics, issues of identity, labor unrest, and political activism. Why Surrealism Matters provides a concise, engaging exploration of how, a century later, the “Surrealist revolution” remains as dynamic as ever.
Why does Surrealism continue to fascinate us a century after André Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism? How do we encounter Surrealism today? Mark Polizzotti vibrantly reframes the Surrealist movement in contemporary terms and offers insight into why it continues to inspire makers and consumers of art, literature, and culture.
Polizzotti shows how many forms of popular media can thank Surrealism for their existence, including Monty Python, Theatre of the Absurd, and trends in fashion, film, and literature. While discussing the movement’s iconic figures—including André Breton, Leonora Carrington, Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Man Ray, and Dorothea Tanning—he also broadens the traditionally French and male-focused narrative, constructing a more diverse and global representation. And he addresses how the Surrealists grappled with ideas that mirror current concerns, including racial and economic injustice, sexual politics, issues of identity, labor unrest, and political activism. Why Surrealism Matters provides a concise, engaging exploration of how, a century later, the “Surrealist revolution” remains as dynamic as ever.
202 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 9, 2024
18 people are currently reading
2514 people want to read
About the author
Mark Polizzotti
77 books40 followersMark Polizzotti has translated more than fifty books, including works by Patrick Modiano, Gustave Flaubert, Raymond Roussel, Marguerite Duras, and Paul Virilio. Publisher and Editor-in-Chief at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he is also the author of Revolution of the Mind: The Life of André Breton and other books. He currently directs the publications program at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 16, 2024
Well-written—it was very easy to follow and understand! The 4-star rating might be my own fault, but I would’ve liked more than ~7 pages on why surrealism matters… considering that’s the title. The majority of the book focuses on roughly 1918-1940s. But it was a great book to learn about the surrealist movement as a whole!
October 11, 2025
Very enjoyable little trip into Surrealism's past. But I recommend Polizzotti's newly released "Jump Cuts," which has a bit more heart. Still, I don't think he could or can do wrong.
March 7, 2025
This book is an exquisite introduction to the surrealist movement for the uninitiated, and not only from art’s perspective – in fact, au contraire! Though the movement mostly conjures images of melting watches (Dali), bowler hats (Magritte), or “unusual” photographs (Man Ray) for most, Polizzotti brings to the fore the raison d’être of the movement’s “culture” which is more political than anything else, by firmly anchoring its essence to a rebellious spirit that defies the prevailing societal values and norms of the time, challenges the banality of the bourgeois society, and unconditionally fights for the liberation of the human mind.
It is true that surrealism’s life span is short (merely half a century), and yet Polizzotti makes the claim that its impact is palpable, even today. Surrealism, by shaking up the creative torpor that seemed to have gripped society around the time of the first world war, has offered a radical means of seeing the world through its experimental, philosophical, and emotional appeal. Polizzotti writes, “surrealism’s true legacy is less as a forerunner than as a disruptor, something that perpetually challenges the existing paradigms and seeks new forms to maintain its emotional intensity.” Indeed, it is this impetus to perpetually disrupt, coupled with its passion to create that helped transcend the movement’s “short span,” provide it with an “invisible longevity,” and arguably made it timeless.
The book examines the “techniques” that surrealists dabbled with such as automatism (which I previously castigated as rubbish, but now come to appreciate more), trouvaille, or tingling with dream and reality through “sleep” sessions. It discusses its search for a “political soul” when its proponents initially cozy up to communism, before distancing themselves from it in Stalin years. It also dissects the movement’s very nature, that is, its emphasis on collaborative and collectivist nature -- ironic, given how one would expect the movement to put emphasis on individual expression; its priority on instinct and feeling over reason and erudition.
I found the radicalism and emotional fervor of surrealisms admirable, especially with regard to their views on religion and work. I take a certain pleasure quoting a few of them here. Aragon blasting those who work as “jerkoffs of necessity” and saying “I will never work. My hands are pure.” No less eloquently put, by Thirion, “I say shit on all those counterrevolutionaries and their miserable idol, WORK!” One must make the distinction, of course, that the “work” they had in mind was not the activity of creative work, but rather capitalism’s system of wage earning as a means of survival.
That said, I also found some of their actions unscrupulous and vain. Urging people to “dash down the street, pistol in hand, and fire blindly as fast as you can pull the trigger into the crowd” as suggested by Breton and spitting on Anatole France’s grave can hardly be sanctioned by reason. Then again, reason was not where the surrealists drew their inspiration!
I felt that Polizzotti, being a biographer of Breton himself, places Breton squarely in the centre of the surrealist movement (to an extent rightly so, as Breton essentially wrote its “constitution” with “Manifesto of Surrealism” and “Magnetic Fields”), at the expense of other personalities such as Aragon, Soupault, and Apollinaire. Overall, however, this did not chip away at an excellent overview presented by the author.
Some excerpts:
“Transform the world, change life, refashion human understanding from top to bottom.” (Andre Breton)
“Surrealism constitutes less an aesthetic movement than a state of mind. Its attempts to reinfuse language and perception, and therefore our experience of life itself, with freshness and passion stem from an impulse that is more existential than aesthetic.”
“In order to be a surrealist, a work of art must explore a mental space outside the field of normal awareness, in a place where consciousness and unconsciousness, the possible and the impossible, become one. Any other art is relegated to the status of “retinal” as per Duchamp’s definition. It is… first and foremost, the spirit – one of dissidence and defiance, subtended by a belief in the inexhaustible capacity for wonder that resides in each of us-- in which it was conceived.” (!!)
“What matters is the adventure sought, the desire to extract a sense of wonder and uncanny delight from the banal landscape.”
“If, as Wittgenstein argued, the meaning of the words derives not from things but from convention, then the Surrealists intended to take convention and wring its neck, precisely by appropriating familiar language and making it strange.”
“Receptiveness to desire and openness to marvels are communicating vessels, with the capacity to endlessly regenerate our ways of being and help us resist the mind-deadening realities that surround us, but also to transform those realities into something better.”
“When we are no longer children, we are already dead.” (Brancusi)
It is true that surrealism’s life span is short (merely half a century), and yet Polizzotti makes the claim that its impact is palpable, even today. Surrealism, by shaking up the creative torpor that seemed to have gripped society around the time of the first world war, has offered a radical means of seeing the world through its experimental, philosophical, and emotional appeal. Polizzotti writes, “surrealism’s true legacy is less as a forerunner than as a disruptor, something that perpetually challenges the existing paradigms and seeks new forms to maintain its emotional intensity.” Indeed, it is this impetus to perpetually disrupt, coupled with its passion to create that helped transcend the movement’s “short span,” provide it with an “invisible longevity,” and arguably made it timeless.
The book examines the “techniques” that surrealists dabbled with such as automatism (which I previously castigated as rubbish, but now come to appreciate more), trouvaille, or tingling with dream and reality through “sleep” sessions. It discusses its search for a “political soul” when its proponents initially cozy up to communism, before distancing themselves from it in Stalin years. It also dissects the movement’s very nature, that is, its emphasis on collaborative and collectivist nature -- ironic, given how one would expect the movement to put emphasis on individual expression; its priority on instinct and feeling over reason and erudition.
I found the radicalism and emotional fervor of surrealisms admirable, especially with regard to their views on religion and work. I take a certain pleasure quoting a few of them here. Aragon blasting those who work as “jerkoffs of necessity” and saying “I will never work. My hands are pure.” No less eloquently put, by Thirion, “I say shit on all those counterrevolutionaries and their miserable idol, WORK!” One must make the distinction, of course, that the “work” they had in mind was not the activity of creative work, but rather capitalism’s system of wage earning as a means of survival.
That said, I also found some of their actions unscrupulous and vain. Urging people to “dash down the street, pistol in hand, and fire blindly as fast as you can pull the trigger into the crowd” as suggested by Breton and spitting on Anatole France’s grave can hardly be sanctioned by reason. Then again, reason was not where the surrealists drew their inspiration!
I felt that Polizzotti, being a biographer of Breton himself, places Breton squarely in the centre of the surrealist movement (to an extent rightly so, as Breton essentially wrote its “constitution” with “Manifesto of Surrealism” and “Magnetic Fields”), at the expense of other personalities such as Aragon, Soupault, and Apollinaire. Overall, however, this did not chip away at an excellent overview presented by the author.
Some excerpts:
“Transform the world, change life, refashion human understanding from top to bottom.” (Andre Breton)
“Surrealism constitutes less an aesthetic movement than a state of mind. Its attempts to reinfuse language and perception, and therefore our experience of life itself, with freshness and passion stem from an impulse that is more existential than aesthetic.”
“In order to be a surrealist, a work of art must explore a mental space outside the field of normal awareness, in a place where consciousness and unconsciousness, the possible and the impossible, become one. Any other art is relegated to the status of “retinal” as per Duchamp’s definition. It is… first and foremost, the spirit – one of dissidence and defiance, subtended by a belief in the inexhaustible capacity for wonder that resides in each of us-- in which it was conceived.” (!!)
“What matters is the adventure sought, the desire to extract a sense of wonder and uncanny delight from the banal landscape.”
“If, as Wittgenstein argued, the meaning of the words derives not from things but from convention, then the Surrealists intended to take convention and wring its neck, precisely by appropriating familiar language and making it strange.”
“Receptiveness to desire and openness to marvels are communicating vessels, with the capacity to endlessly regenerate our ways of being and help us resist the mind-deadening realities that surround us, but also to transform those realities into something better.”
“When we are no longer children, we are already dead.” (Brancusi)
May 7, 2025
This was so not what I expected and it’s completely my fault for being surprised. I apparently had no actual knowledge of what Surrealism was besides knowing that I enjoyed a few paintings that fell under that umbrella.
I have since learned that it covered multiple art forms. The more I learned about the movement the less I liked them. I don’t think I’ll be making blanket statements about liking Surrealist art but instead just be content with liking certain paintings that happen to be part of that label.
It’s an informative book but some of it was over my head. At the end of the day I’m not sure if I know why it matters, or at least why it matters any more or less than any other artistic movement.
I have since learned that it covered multiple art forms. The more I learned about the movement the less I liked them. I don’t think I’ll be making blanket statements about liking Surrealist art but instead just be content with liking certain paintings that happen to be part of that label.
It’s an informative book but some of it was over my head. At the end of the day I’m not sure if I know why it matters, or at least why it matters any more or less than any other artistic movement.
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February 14, 2025According to Mark Polizzotti, author of Why Surrealism Matters Andre Breton is the central figure of surreal art. Surrealist art is described as a response to turmoil. This art is therapy, expressing human emotions. Surrealists are seemingly a cult using art as a form of artist centered expression. Some artists wanted to express positive things, others are more dark. Ultimately seeking artistic freedom, Andre Breton and other surrealists promoted their own art as a movement and political sphere.
September 7, 2024
This is an excellent short guide to Surrealism, a movement which has influenced so much of culture from the 1930s to the present. It’s a little heavy on Andre Breton as the force behind the movement, perhaps at the expense of other participants. This isn’t surprising as the author has also written a biography of Breton. The chapters on the women Surrealists and Surrealism political activism are particularly useful to me.
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March 23, 2025Very enjoyable. I found myself thinking about surrealism differently + I appreciated that.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews