Surrealism is constantly challenging; its works demand attention even as they resist definition and analysis.
It is concerned with metamorphosis and flux; with things that change into other things and shift what appeared to be their essential natures to reveal other possibilities.
The aim of the Surrealists was always to make their audience look at things as if for the first time: to reconsider everything from another angle and to realise, with a mingled sense of frustration and liberation, that there are no “right” answers.
This lecture offers some pointers along the way to anyone who has been intrigued, mystified or disturbed by this movement, whose watchword was never let a holy disquiet be lacking.
Liberty is the possibility to be, and not the obligation to be, declared Magritte.
The ultimate art with attitude, ever changing, ever questioning, ever inviting us into a world stranger and more marvellous than we could imagine by ourselves, the appeal of Surrealism is irresistible, its capacity to enchant, amaze and affront unending, even today.
In this lecture we meet the men and women who made it so.
Justine Hopkinsstudied the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute.
She has lectured regularly for Tate Britain, Tate Modern, V&A, National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, as well as to Oxbridge and Bristol Universities, Christie’s Fine Art, the Art Fund, and U3A.
Publications include, amongst others, The Art of John Martin (2001), Michael Ayrton: A Biography (1994).
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