Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2021 Love, sex and death: The constant companions of art

L’Amour Fou: Surrealism and Love Jaime Tsai March 31 / April 1

The surrealists loved love. One could even say that love is the ultimate expression of surrealism. It was understood as an affect so powerful, so disorienting, so intoxicating, that it was capable of transforming the everyday into the marvellous. This lecture will explore the surrealist notion of love, first considering it against the inter-war context of patriotic love, divine love and filial love, then through its diverse characterisations in theory and visual representation, before concluding with an analysis of the mad love portrayed in Luis Buñuel’s The Golden Age (1930).

Slide list

1. Max Ernst, The Virgin Chastising the Christ Child before Three Witnesses: André Breton, Paul Eluard and the painter, 1926, oil on canvas, Museum Ludwig, Cologne 2. Max Ernst, A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil, 1930, engraving 3. Dorothea Tanning, Maternity, 1946-47, Oil on canvas, private collection 4. Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali, Un Chien Andalou (The Andalusian Dog), 1929, film 5. Excerpts from La Révolution surréaliste (The Surrealist Revolution), 12, Dec 1929 6. Salvador Dalí, Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Waking, 1944; Max Ernst, The Equivocal Woman (La Femme cbancelante), 1923; René Magritte, Black Magic (La Magie Noire), 1946 7. Man Ray, Prayer, 1930; Brassaï, Untitled, 1933; Man Ray, Untitled, 1933; Hans Bellmer, La Poupée, 1936 8. Lee Miller, Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning, Oak Creek Canyon, 1946 9. Leonora Carrington, Portrait of Max Ernst, 1939, oil on canvas, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh 10. Frida Kahlo, Diego on My Mind (Self-Portrait as Tehuana), 1943, Oil on Masonite, Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection 11. Meret Oppenheim, Le Déjeuner en fourrure (Breakfast in fur), 1936, mixed media, Museum of Modern Art, New York 12. Jane Graverol, L’Esprit Saint (The Holy Spirit), 1965, oil on canvas, private collection 13. Claude Cahun, Self-portrait (kneeling, naked, with mask), c1928 14. Leonor Fini, Dans la Tour (In the Tower)/Self-Portrait of Leonor Fini with Constantin Jelenski, 1952, Oil on canvas, Weinstein Gallery, New York 15. Gustave Moreau, Apparition, 1898, Watercolour, Musée d'Orsay, Paris 16. L'Âge d'Or (The Golden Age), 1930, Directed by Luis Buñuel, Produced by Marie-Laure de Noailles, Vicomte Charles de Noailles, Written by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, Starring Lya Lys, Gaston Modot 17. Thomas Couture, Romans during the Decadence, 1847, Musée d'Orsay, Paris 18. Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) The Bacchanal of the Andrians, 1523–1526, oil on canvas, Prado 19. Peter Paul Rubens, The Garden of Love, 1630-1631, oil on canvas, Prado 20. Jean-Antoine Watteau, The Embarkation for Cythera, 1717, oil on canvas, Louvre, Paris

Proudly sponsored by:

Reference:

Fijalkowski, Krzysztof and Michael Richardson, Surrealism: Key Concepts (London, Routledge, 2016)

Frank, Susan Behrends, "Un Chien andalou" and "L'Age d'or": The collaborations of Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel, The University of Iowa, Doctoral Dissertation, 1996.

Krauss, Rosalind, ‘Corpus Delecti’ in L'Amour fou: Photography and Surrealism, ed. Jane Livingston (New York: Abbeville Press, 1985)

Miller, C. F. B., ‘Surrealism’s Homophobia’, OCTOBER 173 (Summer 2020): 207–229.

Pierre, José, Investigating sex: surrealist research, 1928-1932 (London: Verso, 1992)

Richardson, Michael, Surrealism and Cinema (London: Berg, 2006)

For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/events/love-sex-and-death-2021/