archaic, occult, and daemonic elements in modern art, 1914-1940
Surrealism is examined through its history and phenomenology. The frame
of reference is shifted from the history of art to the history of
religions; the premises of modern art historiography examined; and
Surrealism placed within an interdisciplinary context. The conjunction
between the Surreal and the sacred is developed through the
phenomenological clues of the uncanny, the weird, and the
irrational--popular perceptions of the Surreal. The Surreal is seen as
the transition between the ordinary and the extra-ordinary: as the
threshold of the sacred. The origins of the Surrealist impulse to
"transform life" are traced to occultism, alchemy, and hermetic
philosophy, that attempt to create "the union of opposites".
Historically, Surrealism stems from this heterodox tradition of archaic,
occult, and daemonic elements in European cultures, yet it radically
opposes them to the accepted religion and conventional mentality. In so
doing, Surrealism creates a new orientation based upon the power of
contradiction and ambivalence.
