Surrealist Photography
SURREALIST STYLE
In the wake of World War I’s ravaging of Europe, artists delved into the unconscious mind to confront and grapple with this reality. Poet and critic André Breton, a leader of the Surrealist movement who authored the 1924 Surrealist Manifesto, called this approach “a violent reaction against the impoverishment and sterility of thought processes that resulted from centuries of rationalism.” Surrealist art emerged in the 1920s with dreamlike and uncanny imagery guided by a variety of techniques such as automatic drawing, which can be likened to a stream of consciousness, to channel psychological experiences.
Although Surrealism was a groundbreaking approach for European art, its practitioners were inspired by Indigenous art and ancient mysticism for reenvisioning how sculptures, paintings, prints, performance art and more could respond to the unsettled world around them.
Surrealist artists were also informed by the Dada movement, which originated in 1916 Zurich and embraced absurdity over the logic that had propelled modernity into violence. Some of the Surrealists had witnessed this firsthand, such as Max Ernst, who served in the trenches during World War I, and Salvador Dalí, whose otherworldly paintings and other work responded to the dawning civil war in Spain.
Other key artists associated with the revolutionary art and literary movement included Man Ray, Joan Miró, René Magritte, Yves Tanguy, Frida Kahlo and Meret Oppenheim, all of whom had a distinct perspective on reimagining reality and freeing the unconscious mind from the conventions and restrictions of rational thought. Pablo Picasso showed some of his works in “La Peinture Surréaliste” — the first collective exhibition of Surrealist painting — which opened at Paris’s Galerie Pierre in November of 1925. (Although Magritte is best known as one of the visual Surrealist movement’s most talented practitioners, his famous 1943 painting, The Fifth Season, can be interpreted as a formal break from Surrealism.)
The outbreak of World War II led many in the movement to flee Europe for the Americas, further spreading Surrealism abroad. Generations of modern and contemporary artists were subsequently influenced by the richly symbolic and unearthly imagery of Surrealism, from Joseph Cornell to Arshile Gorky.
Find a collection of original Surrealist paintings, sculptures, prints and multiples and more art on 1stDibs.
to
3
61
40
21
1
60
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
293
164
145
71
61
44
16
11
10
3
2
1
1
23
15
13
10
8
8
7
7
6
6
6
4
4
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
40
21
1
26
8
5
72
61
42
41
31
55
40
40
38
33
Style: Surrealist
Artist: Mitchell Funk
Art Deco Paris - Eiffel tower Place du Trocadéro Statues " Slave to Love" Gold
Located in Miami, FL
Reminiscent of the dreamy elegance of a bygone era, Mitchell Funk transforms a tourist location into the quintessence of timeless Paris chic. To achieve this the photographer had to rid the Trocadero of toursits. Next came choosing the right camera angle and lighting the scene dramatically. The photo recalls Brian Ferry...
Category
1990s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Ed's at Rockefeller Center, Sci-Fi Surreal
Located in Miami, FL
An unexpected marquee at the base of upscale 30 Rockefeller Center beams neon into the night. The 1930's art deco monolith is lit up like a silver spaceship as it thrusts into an ink...
Category
1990s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Golden Reflections off Manhattan Skyscrapers
Located in Miami, FL
Signed, dated, numbered lower right, recto 3/15,
Unframed, other sizes available, printed later, Printed on Hahnemühle Fine Art paper
Mitchell Funk is a "Color Photographer Pioneer...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper, Inkjet
Surreal Brooklyn Bridge with Blue Sky Golden Windows and Red Kite
Located in Miami, FL
Why is this view of the Brooklyn Bridge, a blue sky, and golden windows no longer visible? The image is a creation from Mitchell Funk's mind. It comprises three photographs with colo...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Mystical Transcendent Orange Sunset Big Sky
Located in Miami, FL
A spectacular vast orange sunset dominates the sky as tiny onlookers gaze up and out with amazement. The image has a surreal quality to it and the relationship to the sky and people...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
The Cannons of Vicksburg - Civil War on My Mind Surrealism
Located in Miami, FL
A silhouetted man looks out to infinity and ponders the buried memories on the hallowed grounds of Vicksburg. He is seen in silhouette in the bottom half of the composition. The top half shows two Civil War...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment, Archival Paper, Archival Ink
Picture of the Unknown - Plein Air Painter's Surreal Dream
Located in Miami, FL
It's a picture of the unknown. We do not know who the artist is. We do not know what the subject is. We do not know where the location is. It is all left to conjecture, yet the image...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Paper, Archival Pigment, Archival Ink
Surreal Gas Station on a Foggy Night with Green Lights. Close Encounters
Located in Miami, FL
The same year, the iconic science fiction movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind was released, visionary still photographer Mitchell Funk shot this SciFi-like image. It's of an un...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Fifth Avenue at Rush Hour with Extreme Intense Light, Neutral Palette
Located in Miami, FL
Occupying the lower third of the picture plane, a herd of humans stride down Fifth Avenue. They form an overall pattern. The top of the picture is also comprised of a simple pat...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment, Archival Ink, Archival Paper
Surreal Desert Landscape with Blue Mountain and Magenta Moon - Monument Valley
Located in Miami, FL
"Surreal Desert Landscape" is an example of Mitchell Funk's early work. It depicts Monument Valley in an unexpected way. It's 1976 and color photography was not even seriously acknow...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Flatiron Building with Dramatic Light - Abstract Photography
Located in Miami, FL
The ephemeral nature of weather is on display in this hyper-dramatic photograph of Manhattan's Flatiron Building. Dark storm clouds crack open for a brief moment and spotlight the w...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Billionaires Row from Central Park Reservoir with Magical Light
Located in Miami, FL
Photographer Mitchell Funk revisits many popular tourist locations and shoots them in a way that perhaps millions of tourists never imagined. In "Billionaires Row from Central Park Reservoir...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Curvy Nude in Surreal Landscape of Red and Blue - Album Cover
Located in Miami, FL
Surreal Fantasy Album Cover Beck & Sanborn for CTI records.
This image is signed, dated and numbered 3/15 lower right recto. Other sizes are available. The work is unframed and print...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
SciFi Surreal Landscape of Unconscious Dreams
Located in Miami, FL
Pioneering SciFi photographer Mitchell Funk experiments with altered realms of reality by juxtaposing two landscapes of unnatural color to form a never-before-seen original vision. A single silhouetted figure looks out on a day-glow yellow sea leading to a dreamscape of trees. The yellow of water is picked up in the trees to unify the different perspectives. Published Popular Photography Magazine, February 1976...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Two Facades - Old New York Bar with Surreal Mid-Century Mannequin Face
Located in Miami, FL
Two Facades. Mickey's Place was Bar
/ Restaurant in Chelsea opposite the old West Side Highway. In this photograph, late afternoon light illuminates the old walk-up building giving ...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Astronaut Space Walks on Park Avenue Manhattan
Located in Miami, FL
An unexpected pedestrian is caught walking across Park Avenue on a rainy day. We are not sure where he came from or where he is going but he seems like he is on a mission. The Astro...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Surreal Kayak Party in Foggy Metaphysical San Francisco Bay with Muted Skyline
Located in Miami, FL
The weather phenomenon that defines San Francisco, fog, separates a party of Kayakers from the iconic skyline. It puts them into an enigmatic limbo-like state. Photographer Mitchell ...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Inkjet, Archival Pigment
Nude Man Spouting in the Desert - Gay Interest- Born from Mother Earth
Located in Miami, FL
We are all born from Mother Earth. Mimicking a plant or tree, a muscular man standing on his head emerges upward from the desert ground with is legs spread out like branches. Seen f...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Hypnotic Dream-like Scene of Women - Surreal Street Photography
Located in Miami, FL
With a nod to the surrealist painter Paul Delvaux, Street Photographer Mithcell Funk captures two differently dressed women in a dreamlike state. The lighting and architectural sett...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Army Munitions Depot, Edgemont South Dakota - Life Magazine Assignment
Located in Miami, FL
In 1984 Life Magazine was in full stride. Their photo editors sent photographers on location to document stories visually.
At the US Army Munitions Depot, Edgemont, South Dakota, Mit...
Category
1980s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Surreal City - Manhattan Magical Moment
Located in Miami, FL
The alignment of the planets comes together in a perfect magical moment. A man sets foot on a terrace - an airplane comes into frame - golden light strikes the perfect pitch - atmosp...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Muscular Nude Man on Dreamy Surreal Road to Destiny
Located in Miami, FL
A hunched-over nude man on an endless sunset road conjures up big themes. Time, distance, life, death, rebirth, and infinity are weaved together in a purposely enigmatic and dreamli...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Art Deco Paris - Eiffel tower Place du Trocadéro Statues " Slave to Love" Gold
Located in Miami, FL
Reminiscent of the dreamy elegance of a bygone era, Mitchell Funk transforms a tourist location into the quintessence of timeless Paris chic. To achieve this the photographer had to rid the Trocadero of toursits. Next came choosing the right camera angle and lighting the scene dramatically. The photo recalls Brian Ferry...
Category
1990s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Airplane in Surreal Sky
Located in Miami, FL
Surreal Photography in the Sky - Mitchell Funk brings the compositional precision of studio photography to street photography. Unlike most street p...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Golden Sea and Golden Sky, Child Looking Out, Landscape Photography, Seascape
Located in Miami, FL
A dramatic seascape with golden seas complemented by an equally golden sky is depicted with a child seen from the back gazing out into infinity. The viewer can read into it what he/...
Category
Early 2000s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Athletic Male Nude on Endless Surreal Arizona Road
Located in Miami, FL
Athletic male nude about to launch out onto the open road of life. Shot on location Near Taos, New Mexico, 4 of an edition of 15, Signed, dated and n...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment, Archival Paper, Inkjet, Archival Ink
Surreal Road, Monument Valley, Sci-fi Photography, Science Fiction
Located in Miami, FL
The history of Sci-fi art and illustration has had a rich and storied past. Generation of illustrators and painters have rendered their fantastic ideas on paper and canvas. The decades of the 1920’s - 1940’s saw the imaginative but crudely drawn pulp magazine gouaches of Frank R Paul...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Film, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Surreal City Scene with Man and his Shadows in Manhattan
Located in Miami, FL
Surreal City Scene with Man and his Shadows - Signed and dated on lower right, numbered on verso Edition 3 of 15. Unframed. Other size available, Printed later - Printed on Hahnemühl...
Category
1990s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Manhattan Street Scene With Glamours Billboard ( Street Photography )
Located in Miami, FL
Street Photographer Mitchell Funk captures a Manhattan moment of contrast. The top three-quarters of the composition is a wrap-around billboard seen behind street lights. It dep...
Category
Early 2000s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Running Dog in First Light with Long Shadows
Located in Miami, FL
First light skims across the schoolyard pavement creating long and dramatic shadows. A golden dog is captured running through the scene and blends in creating a de Chirico like a su...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Golden Gate Bridge with Sailboats and Clouds, Blue Sky, Fine Art Photography
Located in Miami, FL
Signed dated and numbered 2/15 lower right recto, other sizes available, unframed and printed later. This work is printed on fine art Hahnemuhle paper.
Mitchell Funk is a pioneer ...
Category
Early 2000s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Paper, Inkjet, Archival Pigment
Dust bowl Texas Sunset with Dramatic Sky Windmill - Orange and Yellow landscape
Located in Miami, FL
While on assignment in 1980 for a Life Magazine story on drought in Texas, Mitchell Funk encountered this vast landscape near Wichita Falls. A windmill with a wood fence and barn...
Category
1980s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Flatiron Building New York's First Skyscraper in Heroic Depiction, Architecture
Located in Miami, FL
The Flatiron is New York's Architectural masterpiece and is depicted in this dramatic photograph as a towering presence as it's rendered in hard light against a surreal sky. Signed ...
Category
Early 2000s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Art Deco Paris - Place du Trocadéro Statues " Slave to Love"
Located in Miami, FL
Reminiscent of the dreamy elegance of a bygone era, Mitchell Funk transforms a tourist location into the quintessence of timeless Paris chic. To achieve this the photographer had to rid the Trocadero of toursits. Next came choosing the right camera angle and lighting the scene dramatically. The photo recalls Brian Ferry...
Category
1990s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Surreal Blue Landscape - Early Sci-fi Photography
Located in Miami, FL
This image from the imagination of Mitchell Funk was the cover photograph for Popular Photography Magazine, May 1978, It is signed and numbered on lower right, as well as titled ...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Archival Pigment
Red Sun. Green Skyline New York, Nikon Advertising Campaign
Located in Miami, FL
Red Sun. Green Skyline, Nikon Advertising Campaign
Inkjet Archival Print
Signature: Signed dated ,numbered lower right recto. Printed Later, Unframed 2/15, other sizes available
Nati...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Surreal Blue Landscape
Located in Miami, FL
This image from the imagination of Mitchell Funk was the cover photograph for Popular Photography Magazine, May 1978, It is signed and dated on lower right, numbered on verso, 2/1...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Nude man on Endless Surreal Road
Located in Miami, FL
Shot on location Near Taos, New Mexico, 4 of an edition of 15, Signed, dated and number lower right recto, Other sizes available unframed, printed later. Printed on Hahnemühle ...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Nude man on Endless Surreal Arizona Road to Infinity
Located in Miami, FL
Shot on location Near Taos, New Mexico, 4 of an edition of 15, Signed, dated and number lower right recto, Other sizes available, unframed, printed later. Printed on Hahnemüh...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Inkjet
Semi Nude Men, Muscle Beach Miami Beach
Located in Miami, FL
Signed and dated on lower right, numbered on verso, Edition 2 of 15 Unframed. Other size available
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Path in Central Park. Negative Color
Located in Miami, FL
Mitchell Funk is a pioneer of more the 10 different styles of Color Photography.
This very early experimentation with negative color combined with colored filters yields a romantica...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Modern Photography Cover, Surreal Landscape
Located in Miami, FL
Historically , newsstand magazines have used a standard set of practices when it came to choosing their cover image. Their goal was to use a image that people could instantly relate to. The idea being, if an image pops off the page it will attract more attention and then generate more newsstand sales. For editors, choosing a cover was first a marketing decision and then an aesthetic one. That is why most magazine covers and (that includes art magazines) pretty much looked the same. They used familiar images, mostly of celebrities, beauty people or news items of that would beckon and aggressively reach out to the prospect. In this Modern Photography Cover of August 1983, they chose a radical departure. Their cover image that was the opposite of the norm. Mitchell Funk’s Graphic Surreal Landscape...
Category
1980s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Stonehenge and Eclipse with Pink Sci-Fi Glow
Located in Miami, FL
Shipping should be around $100 - Signed, dated, numbered 3/15, lower right, unframed, other sizes available, printed later
Mitchell Funk is a pioneer of Sci-fi and did a lot of wor...
Category
1980s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Inkjet
Three Oval Glows
Located in Miami, FL
The history of Sci-fi art and illustration has had a rich and storied past. Generation of illustrators and painters have rendered their fantastic ideas on paper and canvas. The decades of the 1920’s - 1940’s saw the imaginative but crudely drawn pulp magazine gouaches of Frank R Paul...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper, Archival Pigment
The Dance of Pink Lights on a New York City Snowy Day
Located in Miami, FL
Mitchell Funk's hand held pre-dawn New York street scene evokes a simultaneous state of beauty of unexpectedness. This is a straight shot. He used a Nikon D5 and 400mm while he was w...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Surreal Yellow Nude with Eye
Located in Miami, FL
Extreme close up of a eye combined with a full figure nude in a tight and graphic composition. It's an early in-camera multiple exposure using Ektachrome infra red film during the pr...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Inkjet
Stonehenge and Eclipse with Pink Sci-Fi Glow
Located in Miami, FL
Shipping should be around $100 - Signed, dated, numbered 3/15, lower right, unframed, other sizes available, printed later
Mitchell Funk is a pioneer of Sci-fi and did a lot of wor...
Category
1980s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Inkjet
Red Sun. Green Skyline New York, Nikon Advertising Campaign
Located in Miami, FL
Shipping should be around $100. Red Sun. Green Skyline, Nikon Advertising Campaign
Inkjet Archival Print
Signature: Signed dated ,numbered lower right recto. Printed Later, Unframed...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Wall Street, Negative Color, Abstract Photography by Mitchell Funk
Located in Miami, FL
Mitchell Funk is a pioneer of negative color, abstract and color photography. This image was shot in 1970 and foreshadows major color photography movements more than 40 years in the...
Category
1960s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Film, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Jewels Hat Spaceship
Located in Miami, FL
Shipping should be around $100.
Signed, dated, numbered lower right, recto 3/15, unframed, other sizes available.
Mitchell Funk is a "Color Photographer Pioneer". He was color when c...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper, Inkjet
Dreamy Bronze Statue in Central with onlookers
Located in Miami, FL
Signed, dated, numbered lower right, recto 4/15, unframed, other sizes available, printed later, Printed on Hahnemühle Fine Art paper
It's an in-camera multiple exposures of two figures on a Central Park bench...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper, Inkjet
Light Train
Located in Miami, FL
Signed, dated, numbered 3/15 recto unframed, other sizes availab
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
End of the World. Begining of the World
Located in Miami, FL
Mitchell Funk is a pioneer of Sci-Fi photography. In the 1980's He did work for the groundbreaking Bob Guccioni magazine Omni.
Signed, dated and number LL recto, 3/15 other size ava...
Category
1980s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Camel Caravan
Located in Miami, FL
Shipping should be around $100 Signed, dated and numbered lower right recto, 3/15 Unframed, printed later, other sizes available.
Mithcell Funk is a pioneer of Sci-Fi Photography a...
Category
1980s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Sci-fi Single Man, Surreal Road to Destiny, Camera 35 Cover - Surrealism -
Located in Miami, FL
Signed, dated, numbered 4/15 recto, unframed, printed later, other sizes available, Printed on Hahnemühle Fine Art paper
Cover Camera 35 Magazine Aug/Sept 1976
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment, Photographic Paper
Surreal LandScape Photograph Four Pyramids, Cover Popular Photography Magazin
Located in Miami, FL
Surreal LandScape with Four Pyramids
Cover Popular Photography Magazine, November, 1977
Mitchell Funk is a pioneer of Sci-Fi photography. He did wo...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Archival Pigment
Modern Photography Cover, Surreal Landscape
Located in Miami, FL
Historically , newsstand magazines have used a standard set of practices when it came to choosing their cover image. Their goal was to use an image that people could instantly relate to. The idea being, if an image pops off the page it will attract more attention and then generate more newsstand sales. For editors, choosing a cover was first a marketing decision and then an aesthetic one. That is why most magazine covers and (that includes art magazines) pretty much looked the same. They used familiar images, mostly of celebrities, beauty people or news items of that would beckon and aggressively reach out to the prospect. In this Modern Photography Cover of August 1983, they chose a radical departure. They used an image that was the opposite of the norm. Mitchell Funk’s Graphic Surreal Landscape breaks the rules of formula magazine cover art...
Category
1980s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
New York Skyline from New Jersey
Located in Miami, FL
Dreamy and surreal midtown Manhattan with dramatic clouds bathed in grey blue light,
signed and dated on lower right, numbered on verso 3/15, unframed, other size available
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Film
Surrealist photography for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Surrealist photography available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add photography created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, red, orange, purple and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Mitchell Funk, Rosemary Ellis, Brian Ziff, and FPA Francis Pavy Artist. Frequently made by artists working with Paper, and Photographic Paper and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Surrealist photography, so small editions measuring 4.5 inches across are also available. Prices for photography made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $110 and tops out at $28,800, while the average work sells for $1,750.