For a secondary source, I chose History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture by H. H. Arnason and Elizabeth Mansfield. I chose this source after looking at a few books because it contains information on a wide variety of artistic movements and puts Surrealism into the context of the history of events that took place. The authors of this source gives readers a full history of surrealism, invokes deeper thought in readers of René Magritte’s life and art, specifically The Treachery of Images, and provides details and explanations that help connect the dots between this and the primary source.
Surrealism brought together a group of alienated individuals in response to World War I. Surrealist artists believed that they could not belong to a society that went into the war without thought and resulted in millions of deaths. These artists used Freud’s theories “to explain––maybe even cure–– human aggression and deviance.” The artists also used their raw emotions that Freud said were found in the unconscious part of the mind. The authors of this source maintain that André Breton was the founder of the Surrealist movement after he became fed up with Dadaism because he thought it was becoming too regulated and
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A few similarities arise after reading both sources. Both contain small sections on the inspiration of Magritte. Both sources stated that De Chirico inspired Magritte to create his first paintings, but only the secondary source tells that Magritte was additionally inspired by Romanticism and its relationship with the unconscious. Also, both sources emphasized Magritte’s infatuation with Freud and his theories. With the knowledge of two sources, we can learn of Magritte’s thoughts, his intentions and inspirations of his works, and his work’s context in it’s time