Surrealist Techniques/Methodologies for Accessing the Subconscious

This post is some research I've done into surreal methodology and techniques, surrealists were concerned with accessing their unconscious and used various methods to get there...

Dalí's favourite technique was to put a tin plate on the floor and then sit by a chair beside it, holding a spoon over the plate. He would then totally relax his body; sometimes he would begin to fall asleep. The moment that he began to doze the spoon would slip from his fingers and clang on the plate, immediately waking him to capture the surreal images.

Salvador Dalí - Persistence of Memory 1937

The Accommodations of Desire is a prime example of Dalí's ability to render his vivid and bizarre dreams with seemingly journalistic accuracy. He developed the paranoid-critical method, which involved systematic irrational thought and self-induced paranoia as a way to access his unconscious. He referred to the resulting works as "hand-painted dream photographs" because of their realism coupled with their eerie dream quality. 

Salvador Dalí - Accommodations of Desire 1929

Aerography is a technique in which a 3-dimensional object is used as a stencil with spraypainting.

Bulletism is shooting ink at a blank piece of paper. The artist can then develop images based on what is seen.

Decalcomania is a process of spreading thick paint upon a canvas then—while it is still wet—covering it with further material such as paper or aluminium foil. This covering is then removed (again before the paint dries), and the resultant paint pattern becomes the basis of the finished painting. The technique was much employed by artists such as Max Ernst.

Max Ernst use of decalcomania

Masson put glue on a canvas automatically and put sand on it, tipping the canvas on its side removing excess sand he began painting and drawing lines until the image manifested into something, this piece is called the battle of fishes, the red is blood of fish that have been attacked by birds and the perspective is as if we are looking at the scene through water.

André Masson - Battle of Fishes 1926

In a trance like state Masson used pen to draw automatically on paper without thinking rapidly to produce incoherent lines after he would develop it with ink making it a little coherent.

André Masson - Furious Suns 1925

Surrealists make the ordinary look extraordinary by changing the scale, levitation, juxtaposition, dislocation, transparency, transformation.

René Margritte - Time Transfixed 1938 (Dislocation)

Rene Margritte - Not to be reproduced 1937 (Juxtaposition)

René Margritte - Golconde 1953 (Levitation)

Max Ernst was known for his automatic writing techniques including frottage, grattage, and collage. Below he uses grattage, which requires taking a painted canvas, placing it on a textured surface, and scraping off paint.

Max Ernst - Forest and Dove 1927