6 Surrealist Techniques You Probably Haven’t Heard of

Surrealist artists are known for their experimental and spontaneous attitude towards art. By freeing themselves of self-censorship and the rational mind, they employed and invented game-like approaches based on the notion of automatism. Therefore, many surrealists utilized innovative techniques such as decalcomania, frottage, grattage, oscillation, fumage, and exquisite corpses. Fundamental to each of these processes were the concepts of the unconscious, the free-flowing imagination, and the openness to unexpected outcomes. Keep reading to find out more about various surrealist techniques.

Invented in 18th-century England, decalcomania is a technique that was used to decorate ceramics. Since it provided unpredictability and waywardness in terms of patterns, surrealists gladly welcomed the technique in their artistic repertoire. The term comes from the French word decalcomanie/decalquer which translates to “transfer,” “stomp,” and “trample” in English. Decalcomania represents a process where thick paint is spread upon a canvas while it is still wet. Then it is covered with some material such as paper, glass, or aluminum foil. The cover is removed while the paint is still drying.

This results in a spontaneous composition which can be treated as a finished artwork, or it can be used as a basis for further artistic intervention. Surrealist artists such as Oscar Dominguez, Max Ernst, and Remedios Varo practiced this technique. In Varo’s Caravan, she used decalcomania when creating the background of the painting, thus contributing to the eerie and phantasmagorical atmosphere.

Breton’s work explores the unconscious passages of one’s mind. The playful interweaving of the lighter and the darker parts of the painting also refers to the uncovered and hidden aspects of the human psyche. Finally, like every other surrealist method, decalcomania is based upon the notion of automatism which happens when the artist suppresses the conscious control over the art-making process.

Max Ernst, a German pioneer of Dadaism and Surrealism, is known for his experimental approach to art. He invented various unorthodox techniques which evolved from his fascination with the automatic creation process. Automatism guaranteed freedom from logic, aesthetic conventions, and social inhibitions. By embracing it, Ernst created a technique called frottage in 1925. By Max Ernst’s own account, he was struck by the idea of producing a new technique thanks to the ancient wooden floor he came across. Ernst was captivated by the patterns he saw while inspecting the grains of the floorboard.

This episode inspired him to translate the shabby texture of the planks into a visual language, thus coming up with the frottage. Frottage derives from the French word for rubbing, since this process is essential for the technique. One rubs a drawing tool, such as a pencil, graphite, chalk, crayon, or any other, over a sheet of paper placed atop a textured surface or object. Just like with the decalcomania, the result can be accepted as final, or it can be used as the basis for further embellishment.

In Ernst’s 1927 work Forest and Sun it is the most evident why a technique such as frottage was so precious and beneficial not just only to Ernst himself, but to the Surrealists in general. The Forest and Sun confronts the viewer with a disconcerting feeling regarding the power of nature. While nature itself is a very real and tangible phenomenon, Ernst transfers it to the realm of the surreal. Thanks to the numerous dark and gloomy cracks and fractions generated by the frottage, this artwork oozes a sense of perturbation and dread when it comes to the natural world and the universe itself.

Max Ernst developed the grattage from frottage in 1927 when he decided to transfer this drawing technique to oil painting. Therefore, grattage represents a process where a painted canvas is laid over a textured object. The layer of paint is then scraped off the canvas. The scratches bring out the colors of underlying layers, hence generating unexpected chromatic patterns. The name of this technique translates as scraping.

Ernst took a step further in terms of artistic unconventionality by employing nontraditional tools to scratch the paint off the canvas. Common everyday objects such as sponges, scalpels, and razor blades were used by Ernst when creating grattages. He also used various atypical bases such as grained wood, broken glass, and wire mesh over which he would later place wet painted canvases. The final results produced by this technique were suggestive, evocative, and unconstrained.

Ernst used grattage to create the forest in the painting Max Ernst Showing a Young Girl a Head of his Father. The technique proved to be very helpful since its unearthly and shadowy quality highlighted the psychological aspect of the work. Like his fellow Surrealists, Ernst showed interest in suppressed desires and sexual inhibitions. Therefore, the granular and interlacing lines of which the depicted forest consists can be interpreted as a visual representation of complicated and baffling Freudian theories about childhood sexuality, incestuous relationships, and the Oedipus complex.

4. Oscillation: Another Technique Discovered by Max Ernst

Escaping World War II, Max Ernst found refuge in the United States. He continued with his artistic experimentations in New York, so he invented a technique called oscillation in 1942. Ernst expressed a great deal of interest in physics, astronomy, and mathematics, trying to incorporate scientific elements in his creative process. His fascination with disciplines that are based upon logic, precision, and rationality can be surprising to some since his surrealist background attests to his devotion to exploring the irrational, the subconscious, and the imaginative. Nevertheless, Ernst explored aspects of science that were unconventional and less exact, such as non-Euclidean geometry which rejected the traditionally accepted notions about space and time.

Inspired by a compound pendulum, a body made of two or more masses that are connected and free to oscillate about a horizontal axis, Max Ernst created oscillation. First, he would tie a can of paint with a hole in the bottom to a piece of string. Then, imitating a pendulum, he would swing the can back and forth above the canvas, thus creating patterns that resemble ellipses and planet orbits. Ernst found the unpredictable nature of oscillation, where the artist could never have complete control over the process, to be very tempting and satisfying. Finally, the associative feel that these patterns of unrestrained lines provided was a major advantage of this technique.

It is important to note that some art historians and critics perceive Ernst’s technique as a precedent for Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings. Even Ernst himself stated in conversation with the French critic Francoise Choay that it was thanks to his artworks that Pollock became acquainted with the technique. There is no hard evidence to support this statement, however, since New York artists had been experimenting with dripping and pouring methods long before Ernst arrived in the US. Ernst’s paintings were also always based on figuration, while Pollock thrived in abstraction. Finally, Jackson didn’t adopt a mathematical and scientific approach to his dripping method, unlike Ernst’s preoccupation with the principles of physics and devices like pendulums.

Fumage is a Surrealist technique that involves smoke in the art-making process. As a base, one can use either paper or canvas—the canvas, however, has to be wet in order for the results of this technique to be successful. Fumage generates suggestive and nebulous impressions, thus finding a special place in Surrealism. Artists such as Salvador Dali, Roberto Matta, Andre Masson, and others practiced this technique throughout their careers.

The technique was invented by Austrian-born artist Wolfgang Paalen in the late 1930s. The term fumage originates from the French word for smoke/smoking. In 1938 Paalen created his first oil painting based on fumage. Up until then, he applied this method on paper only. Smoke provided Paalen with the possibility to create ethereal forms, hazy patterns, and illusory and phantom-like shapes. By mobilizing the unpredictable nature of smoke, Paalen produced superlunary and mysterious imagery, evoking apparitions, dreams, and impulses that seemed to emerge from the depths of the human psyche.

The volatile and inconsistent quality of this technique also symbolized the artist’s relinquishment of control over the creative process. Paalen embraced spontaneity and unexpectedness, completely placing his faith in automatism. Therefore, fumage served as a medium for exploring the unconscious mind, liberated from self-censorship, repression, and inhibition. Ultimately, the nature of this technique demonstrates the power that Surrealism holds in unlocking the hidden aspects of the subconsciousness. Fumage invites both artists and viewers to explore the depths of their minds, encouraging them to abandon logic in favor of intuition.

Exquisite corpse, a technique whose name originates from the French word cadavre exquis, is probably the most playful Surrealist technique. It was invented in 1925 in Paris by prominent artists and intellectuals Andre Breton, Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duchamp, and Jacques Prevert. It began as a game they played in order to pass the time. The technique got its rather bizarre name after their first round of the game, which ended with a line le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau. This phrase translates as “the exquisite corpse will drink the new wine.” Before long, they recognized the automatic and unforced nature of the game, thus adding it to their artistic repertoire.

The exquisite corpse represents a collaborative work. Multiple artists get together and each of them contributes to the art-making process. Firstly, this method only applied to words and writing sentences, but over time the drawings and images were accepted as well. The rules are simple. Each participant writes or draws a thing and then they fold it, concealing it from the next partaker. Later, the paper is passed on to the next player who gives their own contribution. The final result is unpredictable, humorous, and raw.

Another advantage of this technique was its correlation with Carl Jung’s teachings, which were as important to the Surrealist artists as Sigmund Freud’s theories and ideas. By engaging in this group activity, artists were provided with the ability to overcome their own experiences and the personal unconscious. They managed to enter a new spiritual and psychological realm of the collective unconscious.