SURREALISM

One of Surrealism’s most interesting contributions to draughtmanship was automatic drawing. Pioneered by the English occultist Austin Osman Spare, the practice was used extensively by Surrealist artists such as André Masson (1896-1987), Joan Miró (1893-1983), Paul Klee (1879-1940), and Salvador Dalí (1904-1989). Making marks in an accidental, random fashion, their intention was to free drawing from rational control and access the subconscious. Nevertheless, many of the finished works produced as automatic drawings are loosely representational, suggesting that artists found it difficult to leave the results entirely to chance.