Post-surrealism
Encyclopedia
Post-surrealism is a movement that arose in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

 in 1934 when Helen Lundeberg
Helen Lundeberg
Helen Lundeberg was an American Post-Surrealist, hard-edge painter.Lundeberg was born in Chicago. She married California artist Lorser Feitelson, her former teacher...

 and Lorser Feitelson
Lorser Feitelson
Lorser Feitelson was born and raised in New York city but rose to prominence on the West Coast as one of the founding fathers of Southern California-based Hard Edge painting...

 wrote a manifesto explaining their desire to use art to convey the relationship between the perceptual and the conceptual.

Sometimes this term is used to refer to art movement related to or influenced by surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

, which occurred after a so-called period of "historical surrealism". Some have claimed that the term is unnecessary, because surrealism continues to the present day .

Modern-day surrealist activity is sometimes called "post surrealism" by advocates of the idea that surrealism is "dead".

Both Lundeberg and Feitelman participated in a showing of art for the Los Angeles Art Association
Los Angeles Art Association
The Los Angeles Art Association is a non-profiting organization that has existed. The organization accept's artist's for the membership and provides support in the ends of their artistic careers...

 on Wilshire Boulevard
Wilshire Boulevard
Wilshire Boulevard is one of the principal east-west arterial roads in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was named for Henry Gaylord Wilshire , an Ohio native who made and lost fortunes in real estate, farming, and gold mining. Henry Wilshire initiated what was to become Wilshire...

 in 1954. Along with Stephen Longstreet and Elise Cavanna
Elise Cavanna
Elise Cavanna was an American film actress, stage comedienne, dancer, and artist.-Stage and film career:Born Elise Seeds in Pennsylvania, she went to the Pennsylvania Academy and studied dancing with Isadora Duncan in Berlin, Germany. She gave dance recitals in New York City until she began to...

, the artists whose paintings were presented were known collectively as Functionists West. Feitelson and Cavanna showed only non-objective works. Both artists employed flat-colored and near geometrical shapes.

Post-Surrealism was an American spin on the European-born art movement of the 20th Century. Beginning in the 1930s, artists searched for a style that would differentiate themselves from the dreamlike surrealism of Europe and more sub-conscious, earlier movements of Romanticism and Modernism. This new form of "Americana Dream" art began in Los Angeles, California. The cities' fanciful, other-worldly architecture and extravagant city-scape provided ample inspiration for burgeoning artists. Other cities such as San Francisco, New York, and Dallas became hotbeds for these creators.

While exhibiting in California in 1934, Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundberg displayed their work under the name post-surrealism. For the first time, artists were able to separate themselves through their own name, and even formed a Surrealism group which boasted such great artists as Philip Guston, Reuben Kadish, Harold Lehman, and Knud Merrild.

As a social movement as well as art, the works being created at this time reflected the prevalent issues throughout the country. Undoubtedly, the war was a major factor in the surrealism movement. Although the works which focused on these events were surrealist, they are now classified as Social-surrealism. Dali influenced many social surrealists, including O. Louis Guglielmi, James Guy, Walter Quirt and David Smith, whose techniques can be seen in all of the aforementioned artists' works.
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