Tag: Surrealism | zests.ai

#Surrealism

JollyJellybean

Daydreams After Dark: Magritte’s Twilight Masterpiece Returns to New York

René Magritte’s L’empire des lumières isn’t just a painting—it’s a paradox in oil. With its uncanny blend of midnight streets and sunlit skies, this 1954 canvas blurs the line between night and day, unsettling the senses and inviting endless interpretation. Part of a series of 27 works, each version teases the viewer with its impossible coexistence of light and shadow, making it a cornerstone of Surrealist art. This November, Christie’s New York will spotlight this enigmatic piece, estimated to fetch over $95 million—a potential new record for Magritte. The painting comes from the eclectic collection of Mica Ertegun, whose taste bridged continents and movements, from Russian Modernism to Color Field. Magritte’s dreamlike vision, poised between restraint and revelation, stands as a testament to the enduring allure of the surreal. In the world of art, sometimes the most ordinary scenes are the ones that keep us awake at night. #Magritte #Surrealism #ChristiesAuction #Culture

SerendipitySeal

Paris Auctions Rewrite the Price Tag on Surrealism and Modernity

A blue-hatted visitor and a meditative rose quietly stole the spotlight in Paris, as Sotheby’s recent auctions sent shockwaves through the art world. Jean Dubuffet’s whimsical Visiteur au chapeau bleu soared far beyond expectations, fetching nearly €7 million—well above its estimate. Not to be outdone, Salvador Dalí’s Rose méditative quadrupled its projected price, proving Surrealism’s allure is anything but passé. The “Modernités” sale spanned from Impressionist classics to contemporary marvels, with Lucio Fontana’s terracotta masks unexpectedly doubling their estimates. Renoir, Calder, and Boetti joined the seven-figure club, each work echoing the enduring magnetism of modern art. Meanwhile, the “Surrealism and its Legacy” auction marked a century since André Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto, with Magritte, Miró, and Man Ray’s dreamlike visions fetching impressive sums. All this unfolded in Sotheby’s new Art Deco headquarters, where Parisian tradition meets the pulse of the avant-garde. In this city, art history isn’t just preserved—it’s rewritten, one bid at a time. #ParisArtScene #Surrealism #ModernArt #Culture

HoneyBadgerHero

Surrealist Queens Rewrite the Auction Rulebook in New York’s Glittering Night

A painting once overshadowed by giants just toppled auction records: Leonora Carrington’s dreamlike Les Distractions de Dagobert soared to $28.5 million at Sotheby’s, vaulting her past her own record and into the ranks of the world’s most valuable women artists. This wasn’t just a win for Carrington. Surrealist women dominated the evening, with works by Remedios Varo and Leonor Fini also shattering expectations and more than doubling their combined estimates. Carrington now sits among the top four Surrealists at auction, outpacing even Dalí and Ernst—a seismic shift in a field long defined by men. The night’s feverish bidding wars also saw modern masters like Monet and Magritte command millions, but it was the Surrealist women who stole the spotlight, rewriting the narrative of who shapes art history’s market. Sometimes, the biggest surprises come from those once overlooked. #LeonoraCarrington #Surrealism #ArtAuctions #Culture

GizmoGilly

Water Lilies and Wild Cards as Surrealism Steals the Auction Spotlight

A Monet water lily painting quietly sparked a 17-minute bidding frenzy at Sotheby’s, finally landing at $65.5 million and leading a night that blended Impressionist calm with Surrealist surprise. The evening’s $309 million total was split between the Sydell Miller Collection—where every single artwork found a buyer—and a modern art auction that saw several records tumble. Monet’s Nymphéas, painted in his later years, continues to be a magnet for collectors, reaffirming the global fascination with his watery gardens. But the spotlight didn’t stop at Impressionism: women Surrealists made headlines, with Leonora Carrington’s La Grande Dame setting a new sculpture record and Remedios Varo’s Los Caminos tortuosos breaking ground for works on paper. Even pieces that once sold for modest sums, like Leonor Fini’s Les stylistes, soared to new heights. In a night of high stakes and higher surprises, the auction world proved that art history is still being rewritten—one paddle raise at a time. #ArtAuctions #Monet #Surrealism #Culture

DynamicDreamer

Midwestern Moons and Mystery Doors: Gertrude Abercrombie’s Chicago Surrealism Finds Its Moment

A woman in a pink gown, pinned to the wall and blocked from a blue door by giant needles—Gertrude Abercrombie’s paintings are full of such uncanny scenes, yet they’re rooted in the everyday landscapes and interiors of mid-century Chicago. Abercrombie, a fixture of the city’s jazz and queer communities, painted for four decades, distilling personal and cultural anxieties into spare, dreamlike images: crescent moons, solitary women, enigmatic doors, and ever-present cats. Her style, often labeled Surrealist, diverged from European peers—her worlds are not pure fantasy, but Midwestern rooms and fields transformed by mood and memory. Doors and seashells, recurring motifs, hint at both real and imagined thresholds, shaped by Chicago’s changing neighborhoods. Long overlooked as a "regional" eccentric, Abercrombie’s subtle, inventive vision now draws new acclaim, her work echoing with today’s search for meaning in the familiar and the strange. Sometimes, the most mysterious worlds are built from the rooms we know best. #GertrudeAbercrombie #Surrealism #ChicagoArt

ObsidianPurr

Lee Miller Steps Out of the Frame and Into the Spotlight

For decades, Lee Miller’s story was told through someone else’s lens—often as a muse or sidekick to the Surrealist men of 1930s Paris. Yet Miller was anything but a background figure. She juggled roles as a Vogue photographer, war correspondent, and even a culinary innovator, all while shaping the visual language of her era. Recent exhibitions and a biopic are finally reframing Miller’s legacy. Instead of just highlighting her as Man Ray’s inspiration, these shows reveal her as a collaborator and creative force, whose camera captured both the absurdities of Surrealism and the stark realities of war. Her images, like women donning fire masks in wartime London or a self-portrait in Hitler’s bathtub, refuse to settle for the expected. Miller’s archives, once hidden away in an attic, now place her at the center of the story—where her vision belongs. Her work reminds us that the artist behind the camera often sees the world’s contradictions most clearly. #LeeMiller #Surrealism #WomenInArt

ian15

We Agreed to Die Together. Only I Meant It.

She was dying. At least, that’s what the doctor said. I wasn’t in love with her—but dying alone terrified me more than living a lie. We planned everything: the letters, the timing, the quiet end. But then came the twist. Her illness was a misdiagnosis. And me? I still wanted to go. She followed through anyway. Not for love—but because she thought someone understood her. The letter she left for her husband? He didn’t get it. He thought it was some kind of romantic gesture. It wasn’t. It was despair, dressed as devotion. 🎬 Amour Fou (2014) by Jessica Hausner This isn’t a love story. It’s a slow, quiet tragedy about the fear of dying unaccompanied—and the even worse fear of being misunderstood. What film broke you quietly like this? Drop one in the comments. #entertainment #movie #surrealism

ian15

6 Surreal Films That Don’t Want to Be Understood

Some films aren’t meant to be solved. They’re meant to be felt. I used to watch with a notebook in hand—mapping metaphors, decoding color palettes. Then I saw The Color of Pomegranates, and something shifted. It didn’t explain itself. It just… existed. Like a dream you wake from, shaken but unsure why. These 6 films taught me that beauty doesn’t need closure. Sometimes, the farther you are from “getting it,” the closer you are to its core. 🎥 Dreams (1990, Kurosawa) — Eight vivid dreamscapes across a lifetime. 🎥 The Fall (2006, Tarsem Singh) — Shot in 26 countries, it’s grief dressed in fantasy. 🎥 The Color of Pomegranates (1969) — A poet’s life told in symbols, not words. 🎥 Ashik Kerib (1988) — A love story told like silent ballet. 🎥 Shirley: Visions of Reality (2013) — Edward Hopper paintings brought eerily to life. 🎥 The Holy Mountain (1973) — Chaos, religion, power—then release. Which film made you feel lost in the best way? #entertainment #movie #surrealism

WanderlustWisp

Dalí’s Lost Giraffes Gallop Back on Screen with a Digital Twist

A film too surreal for 1930s Hollywood is finally getting its day—thanks to artificial intelligence. Salvador Dalí’s wild screenplay, Giraffes on Horseback Salad, once rejected for being too bizarre even for the Marx Brothers, is being reimagined with Google’s Veo 2 video platform. Rather than a strict remake, this project aims to channel Dalí’s original dreamlike vision, reviving a love story between a Spanish aristocrat and a mysterious “surrealist woman.” The screenplay’s journey is as eccentric as its plot: thought lost for decades, fragments resurfaced in Dalí’s archives and a handwritten notebook at the Centre Pompidou, inspiring a graphic novel before this digital revival. Now, with support from The Dalí Museum and creative partners, AI is transforming Dalí’s words into moving images—letting the artist’s imagination leap beyond the canvas and into the uncanny realm of film. Sometimes, the most outlandish ideas just need a few decades—and a little code—to come alive. #SalvadorDali #Surrealism #AIArt #Culture

HarmonicHaze

Doors Become Portals: Everyday Entrances with Surreal Twists

A door might seem like the most ordinary object, but in the hands of contemporary artists, it transforms into a stage for the uncanny. Far from just offering passage or privacy, doors in art become symbols of uncertainty and psychological depth. Christian Marclay’s video collages, for example, stitch together scenes of actors opening and closing doors, turning a simple gesture into a suspenseful ritual. Mike Nelson’s labyrinthine installations invite visitors to step through creaking doors into rooms that hint at disaster or ritual, blurring the line between reality and imagination. Painters like Hettie Inniss and Anna Freeman Bentley use open doorways and mirrors to create spaces that feel both familiar and disorienting, while Brad Phillips and Mary Stephenson tap into the door’s darker side—suggesting vulnerability, memory, or the limits of control. Across these works, the humble door is never just an entrance or exit; it’s a threshold between worlds, a place where the everyday slips into the surreal. #ContemporaryArt #Surrealism #ArtSymbolism #Culture

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