Soreal Art is a Contradiction in Terms

Though it sounds like an art movement, sorealism is actually a way of looking at things which tends to exclude the fictitious, mythical, stereotypical or fabulous. For these reasons it's best applied to real events, historical or otherwise, before the filters of art are applied.

Having said that, there are writers, artists, perhaps even musicians who use their talents to strip away the habitual ways of seeing, and actually open our eyes to reality again. These obviously include documentary makers and photographers (like Cartier Bresson to the left), who edit and select from a pre-existing reality. But it could also include painters and film makers who, once you've turned away from the Vermeer, or left the cinema, make you look at the outside world with fresh eyes.

Below is the original ramblings about art from 2006, but help amplify, refute or confuse with your own contributions. Illustrations encouraged.

	Social realism and the surreal Soreal in Fine Arts It's obvious what sorealism isn't. It's certainly not surrealism, equipped with  obsessive kitsch internality and a vague knowledge of Freud. Sorealism also is the antithesis of the other 20th century tendency - social realism - propaganda masquerading as objectivity. Like a collective bipolar disorder, these two extremes of introversion and extroversion drove the last century to manic politics and a depressing output...		The ultimate soreal art form Through the Lens For a sorealist, the newly reopened Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, is a dull round of abstraction and self absorbtion. It's gallery art, driven by the fashions of curators and the neurotic isolation of the artist. Where things really come alive, however, is with the photography exhibition. Here, the images don't only tell you about the artist's eye - they also tell you about the world...		Soreal poetry Back to Reality Lorca is our model, because though he started off as a surrealist (and had an affair with Salvador Dali) he ended up with the hyper realistic House of Bernada Alba. We see the same process particularly in post war Eastern European poetry - Anna Akhmatova, Josef Brodsky,  Paul Celan, Zbiniew Herbert, Charles Simic, Wislawa Szymborska, Tadeusz Rozewicz. And these are just the easy ones to pronounce...