Surrealism in the USA
By Alexandra A. Jopp In the United States, Surrealism moved from a political and literary movement toward one that focused more on visual style. European artists in America explored low and high perspectives, moving from the metropolitan modernity of New York City to the “fantastically shaped landscapes and cactus-shaped deserts” of Arizona (Tythacott 160). The Surrealist artists’ experiences also included collecting exotica in New York shops and encountering members of the Hopi, Inuit and other native cultures. However, if Orientalism for European observers was largely a study of imagination, then for Surrealists, the interaction with the native peoples of North America remained not fully experienced. For example, Breton’s brief encounter with the Hopi included an ancestor worship ceremony during which he took notes on the tribe’s customs and beliefs that he late...