Surrealism Finds A Place In Politics

Have you ever contemplated the effects art has had on war, or how art may open paths for thoughts and actions? In Robin Adèle Greeley's first book, "Surrealism and the Spanish Civil War," she addressed these questions with her own answers.

Greeley spoke to a crowd of about 13 interested and devoted enthusiasts yesterday at the UConn Co-Op. She spoke for a good 30 minutes about her debut book.

She wanted to take the most extreme aspect of politics, being war, and how the power of art could push one to think about these intense ideas. She believes that somehow art and politics go together and surrealism somehow finds its way in this. Greeley sees art and politics as being an invocation of two theoretical modes, that which include ideas from both Marx and Freud. These mens' theories are used to help explain how art and politics go together.

Greeley spoke of a realization she made when she was a graduate student. It was when she was working on a paper about the Russian Revolution, when she figured out that art does not produce revolutions; people do. It is in her book she uses her expanded knowledge on art and history to explain what art can do, and what it strives to do.

In Greeley's opinion, "Picture making can embody politics, but not in a straight forward way, therefore allowing room for thought." Greeley goes on to say that art, can speak through politics. These notions and ideas that she brings up are further explained in her book. She looks at paintings from great artists such as Picasso, Dalí, Miró, Masson and Caballero, whose works respond to the Spanish Civil War, to help explain surrealism's role in art and politics.

Greeley also discussed the idea of Fascism and Hitler and how some of Dalí's works further investigate these ideas. The book of course, gets more in-depth with these themes.

Greeley gave a powerful speech about her book, which impassioned and enlightened her fans.

"I was surprised to discover her main purpose of writing the book was to delve deeper into the meaning of art in a political realm rather than a strict analysis of artwork itself," said Christine Elmore, a 3rd-semester real estate and urban economics major. "I look forward to reading it."

Greeley, an associate professor of art history and Latin American Studies at UConn, has been teaching since 1998. She said "[The university] is great, because I have great students and also because the university supports research." She is currently working on two books; one of which deals with art and politics in Mexico in the 1920's and looks at, "The Mexican state's plans for the modernization of peasantry."