Surrealism is an artistic movement that emerged in the early 20th century. It aims to explore and express the unconscious mind, dreams, and the irrational aspects of human experience. Quotes about surrealism often capture the essence of this movement, expressing the strange and fantastical elements found in everyday life. These quotes encourage us to challenge our notions of reality and embrace the imaginative and unexpected.
Surrealism is based on the belief in the omnipotence of dreams, in the undirected play of thought. — Andre Breton
Surrealism is the magical surprise of finding a lion in a wardrobe, where you were 'sure' of finding shirts. — Frida Kahlo
Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn't insanity. Surrealism to me is reality. — John Lennon
Surrealism in painting amounted to little more than the contents of a meagerly stocked dream world: a few witty fantasies, mostly wet dreams and agoraphobic nightmares. — Susan Sontag
To be a surrealist means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been. — Rene Magritte
Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision. — Salvador Dali
The mind which plunges into Surrealism, relives with burning excitement the best part of childhood. — Andre Breton
It was in the black mirror of anarchism that surrealism first recognised itself. — Andre Breton
The simplest act of surrealism is to walk out into the street, gun in hand, and shoot at random. — Andre Breton
The Theatre of the Absurd is a theatrical embodiment and manifestation of existentialism. It is part reality and part nightmare — Martin Esslin
abstract art is not the creation of another reality but the true vision of reality. — Piet Mondrian
They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality. — Frida Kahlo
Art is nothing but the expression of our dream; the more we surrender to it the closer we get to the inner truth of things, our dream-life, the true life that scorns questions and does not see them. — Franz Marc
Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels. — Francisco de Goya
Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels. — Francisco Goya
Short Surrealism Quotes
My idea is to bring happiness, respect, vision, poetry, surrealism and magic [to design]. — Philippe Starck
A painting is never finished — it simply stops in interesting places. — Dan Sullivan
The ordinary are here to fit into the world; the extraordinary are here to create their own worlds. — Matshona Dhliwayo
I like to break the records, break the limits. — Joanna Jedrzejczyk
Perfect nonsense goes on in the world. Sometimes there is no plausibility at all — Nikolai Gogol
Man can learn nothing except by going from the known to the unknown. — Pat Flynn
Exit, pursued by a bear. — William Shakespeare
It's so surreal being here. — Scotty McCreery
In an age of computer manipulation, surrealism has become banal, a shadow of its former self. — Milton Glaser
We all love conflagrations. When the sky changes color, it is a dead man's passing. — Andre Breton
Surrealism Art Quotes
Surrealism! What is Surrealism? In my opinion, it is above all a reawakening of the poetic idea in art, the reintroduction of the subject but in a very particular sense, that of the strange and illogical. — Paul Delvaux
People have the idea that an image must stand for something else, that the real meaning needs to be described with language. Instead it is the image itself that is the meaning. — Mark Ryden
I've always enjoyed feeling a connection to the avant-garde, such as Dada and surrealism and pop art. The only thing the artist can do is be honest with themselves and make the art they want to make. That's what I've always done. — Jeff Koons
The smudging makes the paintings a bit more complete. When they're not blurred, so many details seem wrong, and the whole thing is wrong too. Then smudging can help make the painting invincible, surreal, more enigmatic - that's how easy it is. — Gerhard Richter
American art in general... takes to surreal exaggerations and metaphors; but its Puritan work ethic has little use for the playful self-indulgence behind Parisian Surrealism. — John Updike
Surrealism: An archaic term. Formerly an art movement. No longer distinguishable from everyday life. — Brad Holland
Art grabs people by their eyeballs, it seduces them. Especially if the picture is very beautiful or very sexy or just really weird, if it has some surreal element in it. — Eric Drooker
When I started experimenting with fantasy and horror films and looking for characters who had some sort of emotional or mental difficulty, I saw opportunities to express my music - dare I say art - in a way that I could get a bit surreal. — Nicolas Cage
I loved surrealism and abstract painting, and anything related to those. I always thought painting was the highest form of art. What led me to drawing was seeing so much self-important, pretentious, conceptual-type art in university. I wanted to reject that by making quick, fun art. — Neil Farber
I maintain that anyone who still refuses to see, for instance, a horse galloping on a tomato, must be an idiot. A tomato is also a child's balloon - Surrealism, again, having suppressed the word "like." — Andre Breton
Life is all there is. And if that’s true, then we have to really live it — we have to take it for everything it has and ‘die enormous’ instead of ‘living dormant.’ — Jay-Z
I love basketball so much, I love playing it. I just never thought I could make it to college, make it to the NBA or stand up here today in front of you guys and be an NBA MVP. It’s just a surreal feeling, and I had so much help, so many people believe in me when I didn’t believe in myself. — Kevin Durant
One of the most surreal moments in this election was after the third debate, when I heard a talking head say, Al Gore won on substance, on the issues. But you have to give the victory to Bush because he seems presidential. — Bradley Whitford
My fiance and I had a few problems working through some of the things that he saw me say and do on the 'Surreal Life.' Considering the company that I was in, Ron Jeremy and Trishelle from 'The Real World,' I think I was pretty tame. — Traci Bingham
I was joking the other day about how my real life feels like a TV show, and my TV life feels real - because, to be on Thursday nights on NBC, which is what I grew up with, has been such a big part of inspiring me. To be part of that tradition is really completely surreal, and I'm so grateful. — Whitney Cummings
I guess Surrealism has a draw for me because it's an unknown world. It's a world of subconscious. Some things you can't really get your hands on very easily. Things that are kind of nebulous and they feel like they're not completely formed. You have to feel your way through that. — Gotye
When man resolved to imitate walking, he invented the wheel, which does not look like a leg. In doing this, he was practicing surrealism without knowing it. — Guillaume Apollinaire
... You get surreal numbers by playing games. I used to feel guilty in Cambridge that I spent all day playing games, while I was supposed to be doing mathematics. Then, when I discovered surreal numbers, I realized that playing games IS math. — John Horton Conway
Leaving a role is a terrible sadness. The last day of the shooting is surreal. Your soul, your body and your mind are not ready at all to see the end of this experience. In the following months after a film shoot, one feels a deep sense of void. — Daniel Day-Lewis
Surreal Moments Quotes
... a mysterious intersection of chance and attention that goes well beyond the existential surrealism of the 'decisive moment'. — Lee Friedlander
When people use the term magic realism, usually they only mean 'magic' and they don't hear 'realism', whereas the way in which magic realism actually works is for the magic to be rooted in the real. It's both things. It's not just a fairytale moment. It's the surrealism that arises out of the real. — Salman Rushdie
I have these surreal moments where I’m like ‘I’m pregnant with Jake Gyllenhaal’s baby’ and ‘I’m telling Robert Pattinson that he smells of sex.’ But you’re acting, so the focus is on the work. — Sarah Gadon
I don't shoot kittens with balls of wool. I don't shoot sunsets. What draws me? Ironic, surreal, unexplained, timely moments. — Graham Nash
And that first screening was overwhelming. You were there. People applauded when the title card comes in; there's a big "gasp moment" partway through the film. It couldn't have gone better, and it was very surreal. — James Ponsoldt
It's surreal working with people you admire. I don't think it ever goes away, no matter how human people are; there's always that moment of 'Oh wow, that's still George Clooney!' But I find that the most talented people tend to be the nicest. — Max Minghella
I think that standing onstage on January 19th, and my father had just defied all expectations and won Iowa, was by far the most surreal moment. — Vanessa Kerry
Abstract Expressionism Quotes
Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is. — Jackson Pollock
Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was. — Jackson Pollock
I was a student at Harvard, and that's where I learned about so-called avant-garde music. Jackson Pollock, abstract expressionism and painting were well known at this time. — Henry Flynt
I think more than writers, the major influences on me have been European movies, jazz, and Abstract Expressionism. — Don Delillo
The modern artist is working with space and time, and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating. — Jackson Pollock
Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. — Jackson Pollock
Abstract Expressionism - the first American movement to have a worldwide influence - was remarkably short-lived: It heated up after World War II and was all but done for by 1960 (although visit any art school today and you'll find a would-be Willem de Kooning). — Jerry Saltz
The big shock of my life was Abstract Expressionism - Pollock, de Kooning, those guys. It changed my work. I was an academically trained student, and suddenly you could pour paint, smear it on, broom it on! — LeRoy Neiman
I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. — Jackson Pollock
But no one, when you stop to think, has ever equated abstract expressionism as a movement with jazz music. It's based on improvisation. The rhythms, the personal involvement, all of this is part of the jazz experience. — Romare Bearden
Cubism Quotes
When we discovered cubism, we did not have the aim of discovering cubism. We only wanted to express what was in us. — Pablo Picasso
Most people don't do something seminal. I've done it twice: with my tent and my bed. Picasso did it with Cubism. — Tracey Emin
Every so often, a painter has to destroy painting. Cezanne did it, Picasso did it with Cubism. Then Pollock did it. He busted our idea of a picture all to hell. Then there could be new paintings again. — Willem de Kooning
Cubism is not a reality you can take in your hand. It's more like a perfume, in front of you, behind you, to the sides, the scent is everywhere but you don’t quite know where it comes from. — Pablo Picasso
People want to find a 'meaning' in everything and everyone. That's the disease of our age... — Pablo Picasso
Cubism is like standing at a certain point on a mountain and looking around. If you go higher, things will look different; if you go lower, again they will look different. It is a point of view. — Jacques Lipchitz
Cubism is not a manner but an aesthetic, and even a state of mind; it is therefore inevitably connected with every manifestation of contemporary thought. It is possible to invent a technique or a manner independently, but one cannot invent the whole complexity of a state of mind. — Juan Gris
Cubism is the art of depicting new wholes with formal elements borrowed not only from the reality of vision, but from that of conception. — Guillaume Apollinaire
As we do not see squares in nature, I thought that it is man-made. But I have corrected myself. Because squares exist in salt crystals, our daily salt. — Josef Albers
I don't say everything, but I paint everything. — Pablo Picasso
Avant Garde Art Quotes
If I paint like a barbarian, it's because we live in a barbarous age — Karel Appel
The main trouble with avant-garde art and literature, from the point of view of fascists and Stalinists, is not that they are too critical, but that they are too "innocent," that it is too difficult to inject effective propaganda, that kitsch is more pliable to this end. — Clement Greenberg
You might argue that the history of contemporary art is a series of avant-garde movements, each new wave outraging the last. — Michael Scott
Dance in this century has remained primarily a personal ritual operating, like most avant-garde art, as an idiosyncratic form rather than a tribal expression of religious powers or a corporate expression of societal values. — Jamake Highwater
I didn't set out to do something different so much as do something that interested me. I wasn't trying to be avant-garde - that's being fashionable. You don't set out to revolutionize art, you make statements for yourself. — Arnold Newman
I think that music is a very difficult art form in which to be avant-garde. When we sit down to listen to a piece of music, I think our implicit hope is that we're going to find it beautiful, or at least emotional, on some level. — Steven Soderbergh
In my home country, there was a little shop with old books, but it was really in the countryside. You couldn't find English books. I found this very avant-garde American art book that had information about Georgia O'Keeffe. I was very much impressed by her. — Yayoi Kusama
Experiment - exercising to see the result. We planned Europa not as an experiment in this sense but as a work of art. Yet The Eye and the Ear was done as a consciously designed experiment. Not every avant-garde dealt with experiments and not every experiment equalled avant-garde. — Stefan Themerson
Now, before you make a movie, you have to have a script, and before you have a script, you have to have a story; though some avant-garde directors have tried to dispense with the latter item, you'll find their work only at art theaters. — Arthur C. Clarke
I came home one day from school after being chased by kids singing “Yellow Submarine”, and I didn't understand why. It just seemed surreal: why are they singing that song to me? I came home and I freaked out on my dad: 'Why didn't you tell me you were in The Beatles?' And he said, 'Oh, sorry. Probably should have told you that.' — Dhani Harrison
And the whole Oscar thing, that is just surreal: you spend months and months doing promotion, and then come back to reality with this golden thing in your hands. You put it in the office and then you just have to look at it sitting on the shelf. And, after about two weeks, you go: 'What is that doing there?' — Javier Bardem
My images were surreal simply in the sense that my vision brought out the fantastic dimension of reality. My only aim was to express reality, for there is nothing more surreal than reality itself. If reality fails to fill us with wonder, it is because we have fallen into the habit of seeing it as ordinary. — Brassai
The other day I was down by the Hudson River, and I see two nuns in full habit rollerblading down the street holding hands. And I'm like, 'Oh, my God, I get it. The world is surreal and beautiful. And everything is fine.' — Regina Spektor
The real news has gotten more surreal and absurd, and my fake news, if you want to call it that, has gotten more plausible. And at some point, those two trend lines crossed. — Andy Borowitz
Looking back, my whole life seems so surreal. I didn't just turn up on the doorstep playing rugby, I had to go through a whole lot of things to get there. — Jonah Lomu
I do not understand why, when I ask for grilled lobster in a restaurant, I'm never served a cooked telephone. — Salvador Dali
The past itself, as historical change continues to accelerate, has become the most surreal of subjects - making it possible... to see a new beauty in what is vanishing. — Susan Sontag
I really set out to do this traditional looking and traditional sounding multi-cam sitcom, but then make the world as elastic as an animated show could be. Make the world as surreal as we wanted it to be. — John Mulaney
Perhaps because of this, many have looked at my practice in terms of science and technology, however, for me it is just as informed by Surrealism and mythology. — Patricia Piccinini
What is admirable about the fantastic is that there is no longer anything fantastic: there is only the real. — Andre Breton
When I was a kid, I used to watch 'Laurel and Hardy' with my cousins all the time. I still think they're extremely funny and so surreal. — David Chase
Racing a thoroughbred grand prix car in front of a home crowd will be a surreal and mighty experience. — Nigel Mansell
I'm used to seeing it, but it's weird having an Academy Award. You usually only see one of them on the TV show when they give them out, so it's kind of surreal to have one in your house. — Steven Wright
Words that in their everyday surrealism have no parallel in contemporary writing... Music that mines the deep veins of fatalism in the Appalachian voice — Greil Marcus
In these surreal days, there is one truth. Nothing justified the killing of innocent people in America last week and nothing justifies the killing of innocent people anywhere else. — John Pilger
Maybe I was just lucky, but I had the best pregnancy, and I loved giving birth. It was just the most amazing thing, so surreal but so real. — Ashlee Simpson
In Conclusion
Surrealist quotes can provoke contemplation and reflection, urging us to question the boundaries of our perceptions and embrace the unconventional. They inspire us to embrace our dreams and tap into our subconscious, encouraging us to see the world in new and unexpected ways. Surrealism quotes often provoke curiosity and wonder, inviting us to explore the depths of our imaginations and embrace the mysterious and enigmatic aspects of life.
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of surrealism quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about surrealism to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of surrealism quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
