The magic of surrealism, a world of imagination.

I discovered surrealism some time after finishing my studies in drawing and painting, and it opened up a whole new way of looking at art for me. Although I was familiar with artists who shared this unique perspective, I had never really stopped to look at the details, until something happened within me that made me come to deeply admire surrealism.

When I was studying, I learnt to copy; I’d be given a painting and had to replicate it. The thing is, it never turns out exactly the same, because every artist has their own style, so my paintings were always very colourful, and there were days when my teacher would say to me: ‘Today you’re Van Gogh!’

But another thing people would say when they looked at one of my paintings was: ‘It looks as if it’s going to jump off the canvas.’ It was realistic painting, very vivid. And that is exactly what I always wanted with my paintings: to bring them to life, as if in my mind everything were moving, everything had life.

And when I discovered Surrealism, I was utterly fascinated, not by all Surrealist artists, of course, but by certain ones in particular. In that kind of art, for me, fantasy, magic, mad worlds, boundless imagination and creativity all blend together.

“The Seer”, 1944, oil on canvas.

“Untitled”, 1943, wash, ink and blue watercolour on paper, and “My Native Land or Surrealist Composition”, 1933, oil on canvas.

“The Request”, 1940, oil on canvas.

“The Flying Saucers”, 1939, oil on canvas.

Ever since I was a child, I have had a vivid imagination, creating astonishing silent worlds in my mind, and I think this is why I love the magic and spontaneity of this style of painting so much. What I really don’t know is whether the Surrealist artists first see what they paint in their minds, or whether the brush simply flies through their hands and they let themselves be carried away in that moment of transferring the painting onto the canvas.

The truth is that today I’m bringing you the final part of an exhibition that I consider wonderful and which I was fortunate enough to visit, enjoying every painting and every expression of that magic.

Discovering new artists, even if they are well-known, but whom I personally hadn’t encountered before, awakens in me new ways of seeing art, and above all of learning, because one learns a great deal by observing the example of others and adapting art to one’s own personal style, and perhaps even creating a new one.

“Fantastic Bestiary”, 1939, oil on canvas.

“Woman on the Divan”, 1942, oil on canvas.

“The Camera Obscura”, 1943, oil on canvas.

“The Venus of the Ebro”, 1943, oil on canvas.

“Self-Portrait with Bull’s Head”, 1941, oil on canvas.

Óscar Domínguez’s wonderful work is some of the best I have ever seen, and this is a personal opinion. Many of his paintings are worth looking at to see what lies behind them, metaphorically speaking. I have even come to believe that artists of this kind often wish, through this artistic expression, to leave messages in code, so that those who look at them, or rather, the right person, can discover them.

That is how I stood in front of each painting, scrutinising every part of it, the lines, shapes, objects. If you look closely at each one, there is a wealth of information, so much that it can be overwhelming, as if there were a blend of worlds, and the real one, the one we live in, were intertwined with one taken from a fictional film.

“Telephone and Revolver”, 1943, oil on canvas.

“Sundial and Scorpion”, 1943, oil on canvas.

“Seamstress”, 1950, oil on canvas.

“Seamstress”, 1949, oil on canvas.

I also sometimes think that artists of this kind receive images from other places and capture them on a panel or canvas. The truth is that these worlds, so full of magic and fantasy, fascinate many viewers and are something quite out of the ordinary, like a mad world where anything we want can exist, in whatever way we choose; it all depends on what we imagine and think.

It also occurs to me that this type of art might belong to the world of dreams, those in which things are not as we see them in this physical reality, and where anything is possible. I like how the colour, the colours, stand out, and I admire this style of painting, pouring such exquisite imagination into something we can all see and appreciate.

“The Goddess Europa”, 1953, oil on canvas.

“The Tower”, 1949, oil on canvas.

“The Siphon”, 1950, oil on canvas.

“Interior with Bird”, 1950, oil on canvas.

Do you think, beyond what is traditionally said about this type of art, that it relates to a magical world, to dreams, to messages?

Be that as it may, I wanted to share this final part of the great exhibition by the great artist Óscar Domínguez in a very special way, because I believe it is worth everyone seeing.

Thank you very much for joining me today; I wish you all a very happy Sunday. See you soon.
Amonet.

All photographs are my own.