Similarities and Differences between Surrealism and Realism (Essay Sample)

Similarities and Differences between Surrealism and Realism Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Course Instructor Date Similarities and differences between Surrealism and Realism              Surrealism is an aesthetic philosophy and artistic movement that aims at liberating the mind by emphasizing the imaginative and critical powers of the subconscious, while realism is a pictorial representation of reality as it is. Although Surrealism and realism are different, they both try to express truth and express our concerns of daily life.                Realism is an intellectual and cultural movement that began in the 19th century. It includes some areas of social life such as literature, moral, politics, science, music and art. It is the kind of art that ‘copies’ reality as it is without being honest and expression, which makes it monotonous. It draws on examples from the past because it emphasizes on the idea that humans are held hostage to repetitive patterns of behaviour determined by nature, for example, the popular assumption that human beings are self-centred and desire power. It is an argument based on most human beings’ behaviour in the past. Realism is also a movement that rejects the existence of mythical beings because there is no past information of their existence and how they came into being. In the modern world, realism is more dominant in television shows. In art, it is the movement against romanticism and believes in the philosophy of ‘objective reality (Frankel, 2013).’ The main objective of realism is to bring people a new presentation of the everyday world they live in.                On the other hand, Surrealism is an intellectual and cultural movement but of the 20th century. It comes from the word sur-realite, which means beyond reality. It also includes several types of common areas, just like realism, but art is the most popular one. Surrealism stresses the non-rational or subconscious significance of imagery arrived at by the exploitation of chance effects or automatism and unexpected juxtapositions. It is characterized by the use of symbolism, collage images and dream-like visuals. Surrealism is one of the most appreciated movements because several prominent artists came from it, for instance, Ernst, Dali, and Magritte. It started when some individuals decided to express the world uniquely after being bored with the real world and ordinary means of expression. To show their feeling and philosophy, they were based on Sigmund Freud psycho-analysis of the unconscious. They also believed strongly in the interpretations of dreams and exploration of the darkest corners of the mind (Fijalkowski & Richardson, 2016). The main objective of Surrealism is the creation of another world that is unreal and only exists in people’s minds.                Finally, although Surrealism and realism started in the 20th century and 19th ce...