The contemporary surrealism of Francesco Mappa

Rationally provocative, contemporary surrealism breaks down the dimension of dream space even further and, in the ideological connotation of illusion, renders it pure to psychic automatism. The cage of rationality is the end of aesthetics, it is the imperfection of sensitive knowledge in the broadest sense, as such. And this cannot be beauty, for it would bring a disturbance to the automatic action proper to the creative process of an irrationally rational mind. The task of contemporary surrealism is to achieve liberation from the artistic conventions dictated by the academies. The bizarre (in the photo, 'Screaming at the sky', by Francesco Mappa) and enigmatic images challenge the perception of the observer, who will try, in vain, to understand their deeper meaning. They evoke mystery and, like itself, are unknowable. The artistic influences of the contemporary Surrealist movement, however, come from many different sources. The most direct influence for many Surrealists (contemporary and otherwise) was the artistic production of Giorgio de Chirico, not exactly a Surrealist. But, his impact on the movement was so great that it is often mistaken for such. The founder of the movement, André Breton, even chose De Chirico's work "Tobias's Dream" as the emblem of the movement (further images: "The bird lady", "Circus" and "Woman in red", works by Francesco Mappa).