Movement · 1924–1960

Surrealism

Dream images, either painted with deadpan clarity or dissolved into free, floating shapes; color serves the strangeness.

Across 12 works, the colors are mostly brown (42%), gray (18%) and blue (12%). On average the canvases are light, moderately saturated and warm. Signature colors, used far more here than across the collection: light teal azure, pale scarlet, light azure, rich scarlet brown and light scarlet red.

Color print

The swatches covering most of these canvases, averaged over every work, dark to light.

• MG 218 graphite 6.5% of canvas
• MG 161 rich scarlet brown 6.4% of canvas
• MG 217 iron 5.8% of canvas
• MG 222 charcoal 4.6% of canvas
• MG 175 stone 4.1% of canvas
• MG 167 brown 4.0% of canvas
• MG 223 soot 3.7% of canvas
• MG 176 taupe 3.6% of canvas
• MG 094 light muted blue 3.6% of canvas
• MG 171 bone 3.5% of canvas
• MG 172 oatmeal 3.4% of canvas
• MG 216 dark grey 2.9% of canvas
• MG 087 light teal azure 2.8% of canvas
• MG 174 warm grey 2.7% of canvas
• MG 166 amber brown 2.7% of canvas
• MG 211 dark slate 2.6% of canvas

Measurements

Lightness

0.56

Contrast

0.52

Vividness

0.050

Warmth

+0.71

Complexity

171 cells

Hue range

0.37

Focus

0.07

Composition

Averaged over 12 works: 51% of the visual weight in the right half, 52% in the upper half; symmetry 0.43; 34% calm space; half of the detail in 28% of the canvas. Measured from each image, not a rule the painters followed.

Artists

• Joan Miró 1893–1983
• René Magritte 1898–1967
• Frida Kahlo 1907–1954

Works

• Portrait of Joaneta Obrador, 1918
• The Policeman, 1925
• Painting (The Circus Horse), 1927
• Painting (Figures with Stars), 1933
• The Eye, 1932–1935
• On the Threshold of Liberty, 1937
• La durée poignardée (Time Transfixed), 1938
• The Two Fridas, 1939
• Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940
• The Broken Column, 1944
• The Wounded Deer, 1946
• The Banquet, 1958