Surrealism & Queerness
The style of Surrealism began in the aftermath of World War One in Europe. Surrealist art is characterized by dreamlike realism, strange contrast between objects, and the idea of releasing the subconscious (Voorhies). While the movement has been historically dominated by cisgender heterosexual men, today there are several artists challenging surrealism’s boundaries when it comes to the image of the body and queerness. These artists, including Aaron Moth, Zachari Logan, and Khan Nova, all create artwork depicting the body in a surrealist style, but with an undeniable queerness. This essay will explore queer bodies in modern surrealist art and how surrealism in and of itself may be considered a queer art movement.
Surrealism’s “bizarrely juxtaposed and erotically charged objects” and “imaginative world of fantastic figures” have for decades fascinated the public (Voorhies). Surrealist art can be seen as a form of escapism, where one feels transported to another world that does not obey the same laws of physics and reality as our own. It is as though one’s dreams and innermost subconscious workings have come to life. In one of the world’s most famous surrealist paintings, The Persistence of Memory, painter Salvador Dali explores concepts of time and space and how to make them come across as flimsy and malleable. He depicts a realistic beach landscape with several clock faces that appear to be limp or melting, thus visually representing time as something physical that can ooze and droop.
Surrealist artists also often represent the body in unique ways. To the right of Dali’s liquified clock faces, there is a grotesque flesh-like mass that is meant to represent a self-portrait of Dali. The object appears to be unconscious or even dead (Basquin). Dali’s depiction of this form is notable because it brings a portrait-esque presence to the piece. The landscape setting clashes with the fleshy form in a style that is very in character with typical surrealist artwork. Some may even see the form as erotic, with long swooping eyelashes and an overall shape that could be described as phallic, not to mention the undeniable aspect of flesh. Surrealist artists frequently play with the notion of eroticism in contrast with other more innocent ideas and objects — for example, clock faces — in order to fully encapsulate the subconscious.
Despite the clear heavy hand of erotic imagery in surrealist art, any indication of queerness is scarcely explicitly depicted. Regardless, the argument can be made that surrealism as a whole can be labeled under queer art. As mentioned, a main principle of surrealism is the idea of escapism, in which a viewer feels they have entered another universe inside the work of art. This idea is inherently queer because queer lived experience can easily be compared to living in another world or feeling detached from reality in a very similar way to the ideas of surrealism. Additionally, some surrealist art falls under the definition of camp. Camp is a wide umbrella term to describe so many different things, but at its core, it embodies queer history. For something to be considered camp, it must be extravagant, weird, playful, tacky, or frivolous. American writer Susan Sontag wrote in her 1964 essay “Notes on Camp” that “camp sees everything in quotation marks. It’s not a lamp, but a ‘lamp’; not a woman, but a ‘woman’” (Sontag). This is very consistent with the principles of surrealism because both camp and surrealist work take objects out of their original context and repurpose them with goals and meanings that may be difficult or impossible for some to understand. Surrealist art may be defined as camp even if the artist is not queer or had no queer intention. However, there are several queer artists making surrealist work that may not fall under the definition of camp either.
Aaron Moth is a Berlin-based multimedia artist “whose inspiration lies in nudity, homo-eroticism, architecture, and design” (aaronmoth.com). His work has been described as dream-like. One example is one of a series of eight collages which he titled Así Así Ay. The collages were created for Desidero Issue 1 in Carnale, an erotic magazine based in Italy.
Each piece in the series depicts cut-out monochrome photographs of entirely nude people engaged in different acts of physical intimacy. In this piece, in particular, there are two different same-sex couples whose photos are duplicated and flipped four times around the collage. The photos are overlaid on an intricate, colorful, and swirling background which acts as a stark contrast to the smooth grey tones of the photographs. While the piece is not necessarily classified as surrealism, there is a definite dream-like essence to the work, especially in the multicolored background. In addition, finding queer meaning in this series is not difficult, given that the photos depict acts of queer intimacy pretty explicitly. Another example of Aaron Moth’s work that lends a hand to surrealism is his 2019 collage Cock Watergate Hotel.
The paper collage illustrates a wide shot of the Washington, D.C. Watergate Hotel. Protruding from the background and littering the sky are several black-and-white images of erect penises. There is a blue stripe at the top which is left from the original image of the hotel, thus rendering the field of phalli as a sky. Several of the images stand tall behind the hotel, making the penises read as smokestacks, skyscrapers, or some other type of tall, thin, man-made structures. Moth’s choice to allow some of the phalli to appear as other buildings behind the hotel is evident as an element of surrealism. These vulgar images are pasted into a photograph of a building and are not meant to be here filling up the sky, yet Moth did so. Furthermore, several of the phalli either overlap, touch, or come very close to touching one another. If Moth had collaged in only one image of a penis, the piece would have a very different meaning. However, his choice to include over a dozen, each clearly belonging to a different person, and have them at contrasting angles and positions implies something more suggestive of queerness than if there had been one.
Another artist making queer surrealist-inspired work is Zachari Logan. Zachari Logan is a Canadian artist whose work “explores the intersections between masculinity, identity, memory and place” (zachariloganart.com). He takes inspiration from his own queer identity and body. One example of his work is titled Green Man №2 and is from his Natural Drag series. This piece is very large, standing at ninety-four inches tall. It shows a figure, presumably male and presumably referenced by Logan’s own body. The body is composed entirely of plants and mossy rocks. Some recognizable plants include raspberries, cacti, water lilies, and a large watermelon that makes up the left buttock. Surrealism tends to be rendered in a very realistic style in order to make the contradiction of strange objects and scenes even more pronounced. Logan certainly embodies this idea in his work.
His level of detail in each plant is remarkable and, alongside the large scale of the piece, allows the viewer to believe they are truly looking at a real man constructed of plants. This idea also relates to the idea that the queer body is undoubtedly a remarkably natural form of existence. The variety of flora in the piece represents the infinite diversity of what makes up one’s lived queer experience. Another example of Zachari Logan’s work is titled Hive №4 and it is from his Wildman Series.
This piece depicts a penis, again in tremendous detail, with a grouping of flowers and plants sprouting at its base. There are also some living creatures, including a butterfly, a caterpillar, and two moths. The plant life appears wild or unkempt and its positioning above the penis allows the viewer to interpret it as pubic hair. With this, Logan is making a connection between the human body, particularly the queer male body, and nature. Additionally, the soft, desaturated red and blue color scheme that he chose gives the piece a tranquil dream-like feel that is consistent with principles of surrealism.
Another artist creating surrealist work today is Khan Nova, also known as Mathieu Saunier. He is a French artist specializing in digital collage.
In this piece, there are definite similarities to Zachari Logan’s Green Man №2. The stance of the figure with its back to the viewer and the presence of intricate leaves, flowers, and other elements of nature provides a connection to Logan’s work. However, it is important to look at this work as a stand-alone piece. The figure is standing upon a sort of peak which is surrounded by glittering white clouds. There is also a pink and orange circle representative of the sun in the distance behind the figure which encircles its head and shoulders. Nova uses gentle gradients in contrast to the heavy detail of the flora in the silhouette to emphasize each element. Furthermore, the scale of the figure in comparison to the peak and the clouds allow the viewer to interpret it as something larger than a human: perhaps a giant or even a higher deity. The connection to nature and Earth is still present, however, in the tangle of flora within the figure. The figure’s pose with its back turned and head lowered may suggest some internal conflict or self-contemplation, though it is unclear to what degree, and Nova does this purposefully. His surrealist work is futuristic and heavily influenced by nature and humanity.
To put some of this work into an art-historical context, one may take a look at some of the older surrealist works produced towards the start of the movement. Rene Magritte was another famous surrealist artist and he painted some of the most recognizable surrealist works. An example of this work is titled The Lovers II. This is a very famous painting that depicts two people kissing each other. A white sheet covers both of them so no part of their faces is actually touching one another. The people are dressed in traditionally feminine and masculine clothing, so one can assume the couple is heterosexual. However, regardless of Magritte’s intention, the piece offers some queer subtext. The presence of a barrier (in this case, literally) between a man and a woman may suggest that the couple is incapable of loving one another.
On top of that, having no part of the people’s faces visible and, aside from the kiss, no other real indication of intimacy (no hands visible and no clear nudity), Magritte creates an interesting allegory within which the audience may insert themselves. The little indication of life which lies in the bare shoulder of the woman is hardly enough to ascribe any sort of personality to the figures. Additionally, the background provides an interesting setting. The field of blue behind the figures almost completely encircles them, except for the man’s left shoulder, which extends into a red wall on the right side of the painting. In terms of symbolism, this suggests that the man may be mentally elsewhere while kissing this woman, perhaps wishing she were a man. The presence of a ceiling above the background field of blue that resembles an evening sky is very characteristic of surrealism and causes the viewer to feel confused about where this scene is taking place. This ties back to the idea of inserting oneself into the piece and recognizing the confusion both figures are experiencing. Furthermore, one may relate this work back to the work of Aaron Moth, Zachari Logan, and Khan Nova. The Lovers II uses a similar color palette to Logan’s Hive №4, with muted blues and reds. It also has architectural elements similar to Moth’s Cock Watergate Hotel.
The definition of surrealist art is rather wide and open to contemplation. Unlocking the subconscious and personifying dreamscapes are just the base for such an intricate movement and body of work since the publication of the Manifesto of Surrealism in 1924. Historically, there have been very few examples of blatant queer representation in surrealist art, but Aaron Moth, Zachari Logan, and Khan Nova have bridged that gap in their work and invited queerness into an already eccentric style of art.
Works Cited
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