"In no way will I return to Mexico, I cannot bear to be in a more surreal country than my paintings" - Salvador Dalí, 1971.
Salvador Dalí was a renowned painter of the surrealist genre, remembered for his popular face and paintings such as "The persistence of memory", where he portrays three clocks melting in a desert in a hot and tired way. For some, these words of Dalí might sound offensive, however, they had as a background a positive criticism and a reflection with which the following question arises: what was surreal about this country?
If you are not familiar with the word "surrealism", and you are looking to know its meaning, you would have to search among the deepest recesses of the mind, dreams, imagination, creativity and fears.
It all started with André Breton, a French poet who, through the "Surrealist Manifesto" in 1924, sought to encourage what he called automatic writing. In the text he describes it as: “Pure psychic automatism, through which an attempt is made to express verbally, in writing or in any other way, the real functioning of thought. It is a profound dictation of thought without the regulatory intervention of reason, oblivious to any aesthetic or moral concern ”. The automatic writing style, characterized by breaking with the reality known at that time, was what detonated the surrealist genre.
One of Breton's ideals was that through culture and art, the after-effects of war would be regenerated. At the same time that he was writing the manifesto, the Olympic Games in Paris were being lived and the ravages of the First World War were being suffered. Due to the sociocultural context in which the pioneers of the movement were living, they decided to bet on a change in the way of writing.
The manifesto, among other things, criticized how dull and gray literature and poetry were established in physical realities. In Breton's opinion, "Another fantasy and dream world had to be created that would awaken these mental instincts with the flow of consciousness." Based on ideas influenced by Sigmund Freud, they invited us to observe dreams more and be aware of what was happening in the mind.
The other arts integrated the surrealist style in 1929, when the artists adopted the technique of automatism with some works other than the conventional. One of the techniques that was remembered and adapted to the genre, due to its creation protocol, was the “paranoid-critical”. This took up the way in which Leonardo Da Vinci observed a wall for hours until he began to see forms and figures emerge on it.
Contemporary artists in 1929 began to create works and techniques of invention for their paintings or sculptures based on Breton's automatism. For example, Salvador Dalí, through dream inspiration, created his paintings. René Magritte played with ambiguous images and gave them words. Paul Delvaux charged his works with eroticism. On the other hand, Pablo Picasso was interested in and proposed the creation of monsters and spoke of the sublime in the composition of figures. In this way, surrealism germinated in art, breaking the schemes of reality and giving the viewer a new vision of such grotesque and introspective works and sculptures.
The rise of surrealism was in 1938, when the first International Exhibition of Surrealism was held in Paris. This predicted the prelude to new artists, iconic works of the movement and a new world full of shapes, colors, sensations and reflections that, to date, strike a chord with the viewer. Unfortunately, in 1939, Surrealism has another difficult episode.
World War II explodes and the movement is tremendously affected by it. Due to the nature of the conflict, most of the artists are forced to disperse to other countries, placing different exponents in Spain, the United States and, especially, in Mexico. In this way, artists such as José Horna, Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington and more exponents of different artistic disciplines arrive in a situation of political asylum. This mass exile of artists created a cultural syncretism between the European and American art currents.
Upon arrival, immigrant artists were amazed by the strength and diversity of Mexican culture; for its towns, pyramids, social processes, but, above all, for the welcoming reception by Mexican artists. They, writers, muralists, sculptors and painters, helped foreigners in multiple ways: from providing them with a home, to providing them with material to work with. A forceful change in painting styles was quickly noticed characterizing the national movements of that time, creating new visions about surrealism and the popularization of Mexican art.
Among the artists of the surrealist genre who came to Mexico is Leonora Carrington, an English artist who, from the beginning, felt passionate and grateful for the way in which she connected with Mexican culture. Leonora appreciated the solidarity she received from Mexican artists, influencing her subsequent years as a painter and beginnings as a sculptor. As a way of gratitude, he flooded the streets of Mexico City with works of art and participated in the evolution of surrealist sculptures while proclaiming himself Mexican.
Edward James, for her part, was a horticulturist in love with Mexican culture. Her irrational fascination for orchids led her to seek and collect them wherever they were. Thus, she ended up in Xilitla, a town in the Huasteca Potosina, where she found land for sale that seemed ideal to create a garden dedicated to orchids. She bought several hectares of the area known as Las Pozas and, with the help of her Mexican friend Plutarco Gastélum, they planted an orchid garden. Edward spent part of his fortune hiring masons and craftsmen to fulfill his dream. According to the records, between 80 and 200 workers worked daily during its construction. It was never planned to finish it, as there were no plans or sequences, but an architecture of the automatism, which was being generated day by day.
In the end, more than 30 sculptures were created with giant flower columns, Gothic arches, dramatic doorways, and spiral staircases that end in the air. In addition, the garden has large corridors. Some lead to the pools and others, aimlessly, form a labyrinth.
Leonora and Edward met in Acapulco, Guerrero in 1944. From the first moment, James was fascinated by the artist who was as English and surreal as he was. Their friendship grew, and in the 1960s Edward invited Leonora to her surreal garden to paint a mural.
“Edward James invited her to paint the mural in Xilitla and Leonora lifted a woman with a ram's face, round breasts and sepia color on a column. James had been his buyer, his collector, his supporter (…) Leonora took the commission for the mural as a duty to the friend who recognized his talent. Leonora, who was never separated from her children, even took them during class time to play in the immense garden in which James built useless and fantastic sculptures; useless because the stairs with their stone steps rise into the void, the doors and bridges do not lead anywhere nor do they have a reason for being ”(Poniatowska, 2011)
San Luis Potosí was a key city for surrealism in Mexico due to its historical protection of works and its outstanding participation in this movement. To get a more complete idea about this genre, an interview was conducted with the LCC. Antonio García Acosta, director of the Leonora Carrington Museum at SLP.
What is your vision about surrealism?
Surrealism is a historical art movement. It was officially born in Europe through a manifesto during the 1920s and ended, for many, in 1965 with the death of its founder, André Bretón.
However, it is a movement that continues to captivate us. For example, there are film directors who are described as surrealists, like David Lynch, or writers to whom that word is also applied. It has gone from signifying the unexpected, fanciful, strange, inexplicable that had to do with a group of artists in particular to being used more colloquially today.
(Surrealism) has a particular stamp, which began more as a philosophy than an artistic style, which sought to transform life and society through art. I believe that he has a very great mission and they left us very cool paintings, but they did not achieve how essential this transformation was.
How would you define surrealism in a word?
In a word, I think it is impossible, but it is the "super real", which is above reality.
San Luis Potosí is presented today as this surreal destination, with the Edward James Castle and the Leonora Carrington Museum in the capital. Do you really consider it a surreal state?
The surreal destination of San Luis Potosí is the way to encompass these tourist and cultural attractions that are the two museums and the Edward James Sculpture Garden in Xilitla. What is true are these contacts with the movement that have to do with the two figures, Leonora Carrington and Edward James, who were friends. Leonora Carrington was in Xilitla with Edward, in fact, he painted a mural in one of the houses that still exists, as well as part of his work that was within the state.
There was also a poet, César Moro, who wrote all or part of a book called La Tortuga Ecuestre, here in San Luis Potosí. We have these meeting points between the public and the artists who passed or left their legacy. What I think is that San Luis can boast of surrealism.
A point of reference in the country and in the history of surrealism is based in the state of San Luis Potosí, since the force of its diversity generated in the artists an attractive proposal to continue working on that image of a magical place. To date, an image is still given for tourists of a "Surreal Destination", because every year they visit us hoping to have a shocking experience for the viewer. This image has been reinforced by the cultural vault that the museums and natural paradises of the state hold.
The questions that remain are: will the state of San Luis Potosí continue to be a benchmark for surrealism? And will there be new spaces to enjoy and live surrealism as an experience? The way this genre is admired will always be from a personal perspective, but the powerful force that surrealism keeps in the state and in the country is what gives that magical and irreverent part to Mexican culture.
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