This study examines images and texts by Federico Garcia Lorca, Rafael Alberti, Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington, which demonstrate an attempt at self-fashioning or selfdefinition, within a Surrealist aesthetic. Given Andre Breton's belief that through his desire for woman he could tap into his creative subconscious, this discussion asks to what extent the artists' endeavours were tempered or mediated by desire. Via a close reading of images and texts created by a collection of artists and poets chosen for the synthesis of their artistic vision, this study aims to demonstrate how Surrealism lends itself to the articulation of complex identity questions. The inclusion of painters and poets, both male and female, allows for an interrogation of the implications of gender and genre in their work. The artworks studied demonstrate that, despite the slight difference in era between Lorca and Alberti, and Varo and Carrington, they all use the malleability of Surrealism, by means of imagery of metamorphosis, decomposition and obfuscation, in works which question subjectivity and articulate a search for the self. The artists' articulations of desire which range from Remedios Varo's subtle imagery of inhuman bodies intertwining to Rafael Alberti's violent images of mortification to repress forbidden impulses form an important part of their coming of age in a Surrealist aesthetic but do not, as Breton conceived of it, act as a medium to uncover a greater truth. This study will show that united in their marginal association to the Surrealist movement, Lorca, Alberti, Varo and Carrington, all created works which demonstrate a sense of tension between two opposing states, such as subject and object, male and female, and life
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:602786 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Plunkett, Tara Emma |
| Publisher | Queen's University Belfast |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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