Surrealism

(ARTH 230)

This course will explore the complex character and significance of Surrealism—one of the most influential art movements of the modern era. Beyond the richly poetic creativity of the artworks and associations with Freud’s theory of the unconscious and Marx’s writings on revolution, surrealist imagery bears witness to the actualities of life in the inter-war era. Depictions of subversive scenarios, irrational environments, and strange figurations can readily be related to the everyday world by referencing the pervasive violence, desolate wastelands, and deformed bodies that were all too familiar during these turbulent years. The course will examine a broad range of work by such diverse artists as Dali, Ernst, Giacometti, Magritte, Masson, Miró, and Tanguy. In addition to class lectures and discussions, we will visit SFMOMA to view its collection of surrealist paintings and sculptures.

Sidra Stich, Museum Curator; Director of art-SITES

Sidra Stich received a PhD in art history from UC Berkeley and has taught at Washington University, UC Berkeley, Mills College, and the University of San Francisco. She has also held positions as chief curator at the Berkeley Art Museum, Distinguished Scholar at the Smithsonian Institution, Fellow at the Research Institute of the National Gallery, and Berlin Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. She has written guidebooks on contemporary art and architecture in France, Britain and Ireland, London, northern Italy, Paris, Spain, and San Francisco.