Elements of Surrealist practices in contemporary visual art

Master's Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Art - Sculpture / Plastics grade: distinction The Open University (Department of Art History) language: English abstract: This research project wants to assess to what extent Louise Bourgeois is employing Surrealist practices in her work. Another question is in what way Bourgeois criticized the practices of historical Surrealism and how she has developed these practices further in order to adapt them to new subject matter for instance feminist themes. Chapter I tries to elucidate how art historians and art critics since the 1980s referred to Surrealism when interpreting Bourgeois' work. It is possible to show that Bourgeois used the concept of the Surrealist object for her installations. However she did this in a way in which the female body is only present by implication. The erotic dimension which was of great importance for the Surrealists is destroyed by allusions to old age and death. Bourgeois' installations of the 1990s can therefore be considered as a radical and feminist reuse of the surrealist object. Chapter II looks at works which imply allusions to the unconscious and psycho-analysis like the installations Arch of Hysteria (1992/3) and Precious Liquids (1992). Here I also take into account Bourgeois' own comments on her work. Although artist's comments do not represent a definitive interpretation of a work of art this aspect seems justified as Bourgeois claims that her art is the result of her direct access to her unconscious. At least according to Freud this direct access is impossible the unconscious being something impenetrable which communicates with the conscious only by signs. However in her installations Bourgeois consistently makes allusions to the erotic and desire but she also shows their reverse side: fear pain violence voyeurism ephemerality and the ambiguities of male and female identity. Chapter III looks at the overall social context of the 1960s and 1970s to whic