Salinas
Surrealism

Surrealism has been explored by artists since it began in Paris in 1924 when André Breton wrote the “First Manifesto of Surrealism in Art in Theory”.*

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The unconscious and dreams became important, even more so in expressing the artist’s reality.  Imagination reigned supreme.

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Breton wrote:   "…why should I not grant to dreams what I occasionally refuse reality, that is, this value of certainty in itself…I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality…" *

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In the 1930’s and 40’s, Alexandria, Egypt became the enticing fantasy escape from the long dark dismal and frigid winters of Paris and London for many painters and writers.  Eagerly absorbing all, Marcel Salinas was an integral young member of this rich and exciting milieu.

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Salinas was fascinated with tenets of surrealism.  The liberating ideas of allowing the unconscious, the imagination, dreams open new worlds of creativity.  The artist could express the absurd, the comical, the frightening or the inexplicable through the painting.

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The young artist could not know that years later, he would collaborate with one of the one original creators of Surrealism:  Salvador Dali on many of Dali’s editions of lithographs .