Symbolism in surrealism

Symbolism plays a key role in surrealism, as it helps to express deep, often hidden meanings and emotions.

1. Dream and Subconscious

Dreams: Surrealist paintings often evoke dreamlike scenarios where the boundaries between reality and fiction are blurred. A dream symbolizes the unlimited freedom of imagination and subconscious desires.
Subconscious: Freudian theories of the subconscious had a significant influence on surrealists. In their works, symbols often reflect repressed emotions and fears.

2. Metamorphosis and Transformation

Changing Forms: It's common to see paintings where objects or beings undergo metamorphosis, changing shapes or merging into illogical forms. This symbolizes the variability of reality and the ambiguity of meanings.
Human Body: Often depicted in a distorted way, it symbolizes anxieties related to identity, sexuality, and death.

3. Images of Duality

Mirrors and Reflections: Mirrors often appear as symbols of duality and introspection. They can represent alternate realities or the artist's inner self.
Light and Darkness: The contrast between light and darkness can symbolize the struggle between consciousness and the subconscious, good and evil, reality and illusion.

4. Everyday Objects in a New Context

Strange Juxtapositions: Everyday objects presented in unexpected contexts take on new, symbolic meanings. An example is René Magritte's famous painting "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" (This is not a pipe), where the depiction of an object contradicts its name.
Clocks: In Salvador Dalí's works, particularly in "The Persistence of Memory," melting clocks symbolize the fluidity of time and its subjective nature.

5. Surrealist Landscapes

Deserts: Deserts and barren landscapes can symbolize emotional emptiness, isolation, or the landscape of an unconstrained mind.
Seaside Sceneries: Often appearing in Dalí's works, they symbolize deep introspection and journeys into one's consciousness.

6. Animals as Symbols

Insects: Motifs of insects like ants or butterflies can symbolize the inevitability of death (ants) or transformation (butterflies).
Birds: They can symbolize freedom, but also the anxiety associated with the flight of thoughts and dreams.

7. Religious and Mythological Elements

Cross: In surrealist works, the cross can have various meanings—from a symbol of suffering to a metaphor for death and rebirth.
Mythological Figures: Figures like the Minotaur, which appear in Max Ernst's works, symbolize the conflict between humanity and bestiality.

8. Automatism and Spontaneity

Doodles and Abstractions: Unrestrained brush strokes or uncontrolled drawings are meant to symbolize the free flow of thoughts and the lack of censorship in the conscious mind.

Surrealism explores the depths of the human mind, using symbolism that is often ambiguous and open to interpretation. As a result, each painting can be perceived in different ways, depending on the viewer's personal experiences and associations.

Mariusz Lewandowski, a Polish painter, gained international recognition for his surrealist paintings, which often combine elements of fantasy, dark atmosphere, and deep symbolism. His work is rooted in surrealism but also draws on movements such as magical realism and symbolism. Here are some key elements of symbolism in his works:

1. Monumental Figures and Shapes

Gigantic Silhouettes: Lewandowski often paints monumental, almost godlike figures that seem to dominate the scene. They may symbolize power, the inevitability of fate, as well as human ambition or ego. These figures are often masked or have undefined faces, emphasizing their mystery and distance from the human world.
Shadows: The figures are often depicted in a shadowy manner, which may symbolize the transience of existence, spiritual quests, or inner struggles.

2. Desolate, Cosmic Landscapes

Spaces: Lewandowski paints vast, desert-like, or cosmic landscapes that may symbolize inner emptiness, isolation, but also the infinity of the universe and the unknown aspects of human consciousness.
Ruins and Destruction: Destroyed buildings or remnants of civilization in his paintings may symbolize decay, the transience of human achievements, and the impermanence of life.

3. Remains and Skulls

Skulls: The motif of the skull, present in many of Lewandowski's paintings, is a classic symbol of death, transience, but also a memento mori—a reminder of the fragility of human life.
Skeletons: They represent not only death but also what remains after life has passed—the immortal aspect of the soul or memory.

4. Abstract and Deformed Forms

Flowing Shapes: Elements that seem to change shape, melt, or flow can symbolize the variability of reality, the fluidity of time, or the instability of human identity.
Deformed Figures: These can symbolize inner struggles, psychological suffering, or the conflict between body and soul.

5. Light and Darkness

Luminous Points: In Lewandowski's paintings, contrasting lights often appear in dark, melancholic landscapes. Light may symbolize hope, spiritual enlightenment, or transcendence.
Darkness: Darkness in his works symbolizes the unknown, the subconscious, but also existential fears and the mysteries of the universe.

6. Religious and Spiritual Symbolism

Crosses and Sacred Figures: Though subtly, Lewandowski references religious motifs that may symbolize spiritual struggles, the search for meaning in life, and confrontation with divinity.
Altars and Thrones: These elements may symbolize power, sanctity, but also pride and divine intervention.

7. Apocalyptic Symbols

Prophecies: Some paintings may seem apocalyptic, symbolizing the end of the world or large-scale transformations, both in a spiritual and material sense.