Blog
Take Surrealism Seriously
November 01, 2025
During my winter ‘25 semester of my sophomore year, I took a
Surrealism Art History course with VMA professor Kirsten Strom. The
content became instantly interesting as we looked at the history, the
art, and the various ideologies that helped shape Surrealism.
Surrealism was an artistic movement from the 1920s-1950s that was all
encompassing - it seeped into all aspects of the surrealists’ lives.
One thing that stuck out to me most was the effort to ditch academic
art. Two of the activities that we did in class were creating pieces
by utilizing surrealist processes. This helped to immerse us into a
surrealist-esque world that we all deeply enjoyed. I chose to create
my mini-exhibition, Take Surrealism Seriously, because I want
to extend the freedom of artmaking that I took away from the
class.
When looking through the collection to find specific works for this display, I wanted to embody a different aspect of Surrealism. I wanted to convey the ideas of embracing the irrational, taking on a childlike imagination, letting go of pragmatism, unlocking the unconscious mind, and exploring the uncanny and the absurd. In addition to the three images and one sculpture on display, I also created cards with other Surreal-esque images from the collection. An advertisement strategy of the Surrealists was to give out calling cards, which is something I wanted to replicate. When you visit the display, you can take away my “calling cards” which feature an image on the front and a challenge on the back. These challenges, such as playing Exquisite Corpse or creating a collage, are meant to help you mimic what being a surrealist artist might be like and how you can take those aspects and maybe incorporate them into your everyday artmaking life!
This guest blog was written by GVSU student Genna Sinclair, Social Media and Learning Assistant for GVAM.
Patty Carroll, Toasty, digital archival print, 2016, 2021.73.5.
BogusBaw Bachorczyk, Gski, Gski, Do Domu, mixed
media collage, 2023.58.1.
Douglas R. Gilbert, Untitled (Theatre Scene), photographic
print, 1999-2002, 2018.48.2423.