Best surrealist art to inject your space with dream-like beauty

Lengthy in name and complex in composition, Salvador Dalí’s Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening was painted in 1944 and is believed to represent the artist's wife Gala. A nude woman reclines in the forefront of the work seemingly dreaming. Behind her stretches a blue seascape, hovering above which is a pomegranate which is a Christian symbol of fertility and resurrection.

Protruding from the pomegranate is a goldfish, with two tigers leaping from its mouth towards the subject. In the distance, an elephant-flamingo hybrid maps the skyline while carrying an obelisk on its back.

Look closely and you’ll see a small bee hovering above a pomegranate beside the woman, threatening to wake her from her dream with a single sting.

Frida Kahlo’s The Two Fridas from 1939 is a self-representation of the famed artist.

In the piece, produced shortly after Kahlo’s divorce from Diego Rivera, the artist depicts her two personalities. On the left sits traditional Frida, clad in Tehuana costume with a wounded heart. She sits next to modernly dressed Frida with a full heart, unblemished by heartbreak.

A childhood imaginary friend inspired the painting. It represents Kahlo’s despair and loneliness following the separation from her husband. The stormy sky filled with whirling clouds in the background further represents this inner turmoil.

A contemporary piece from 2018, Rafał Olbiński’s Rain integrates the human form with that of an umbrella, a popular motif of the Surrealist movement. Style-wise, the piece is similar to Magritte’s, thanks to the bold colours, a clean human form and contorted bodily depictions. 

Olbiński incorporates the red umbrella into many of his works, often intertwining the commonplace object with the female figure. Rain showcases a blonde, scantily dressed woman emerging from a bold red umbrella, shielding a smartly dressed man beneath. Rain droplets solely fall from the umbrella, while the rest of the work remains untouched by the drizzle.

Dorothea Tanning’s A Little Night Music is a hauntingly beautiful piece. Two young, long-haired girls stand in a darkly-lit corridor, overcome by an metaphysical power that is seemingly related to the presence of a large sunflower sprawling across the pathway. 

In a 1999 letter, Tanning said of this work: “It’s about confrontation. Everyone believes he/she is his/her drama. While they don’t always have giant sunflowers (most aggressive of flowers) to contend with, there are always stairways, hallways, even very private theatres where the suffocations and the finalities are being played out, the blood red carpet or cruel yellows, the attacker, the delighted victim…”

Created two years before the Surrealist Manifesto was published, Paul Klee’s Twittering Machine is a melancholic watercolour with gouache, pen-and-ink and oil transfer. The image depicts a group of line-drawn birds, all bar the first of which are shackled on a wire. A serene blue-lilac colour scheme contrasts the noisy topic of the piece, being the squeaking creatures perched on the wire.

The nightmarish piece blends biology and machinery, a relationship extensively explored by the Swiss-German artist. Now housed in MoMA, the work was declared as ‘degenerate art’ by Adolf Hitler in 1939. We say, all the more reason to revel in its mastery.

Nightmarishly beautiful, Dalí’s exhibition poster print from 1948 is an example of the artist’s lighter work.

An orange rose is supported y a fine stem, the leaves of which are dainty resting butterflies. A pale mint sky meets a sand landscape which showcases solid lines that lead the eye to create depth in the piece. In the foreground you’ll see whimsical leaf-like characters engaging in a myriad of activities, such as spearing a pear and transforming into a nectarine tree.

Joan Miró deeply admired nature and was fascinated by everyday objects and their commonplace beauty.

Miró painted this kaleidoscopic work in hometown, the Spanish village of Montroig, shortly after his first visit to Paris. The dazzling, complex composition of the piece mirrors a Cubist collage technique inspired by the work of Pablo Picasso, whom he had met on his trip to France.

Various details hold significance such as the book on the table, Le Coq et l'arlequin (The Rooster and the Harlequin) by Jean Cocteau which features illustrations by Picasso, representing the artists’ blossoming friendship.

René Magritte's The Son of Man is arguably the most iconic surrealist painting of all time. The piece is open to interpretation and has captivated art historians for decades. The painting is a surrealist self-portrait of the artist, but the very phrase ‘The Son of Man’ also refers to Jesus, creating a religious element.

Male figures wearing bowler hats are a recurring motif in Magritte's paintings, but here the man's face is covered by a perfect green apple, concealing his identity. Behind the man appears a short stone wall and a stormy sky, adding to the viewer's sense of ambiguity and unease.

Guernica is Pablo Picasso’s most tortured piece. Vast in size and tragic in nature, the epic narrative is a powerful political statement.

The complex work was painted as an intense reaction to the Nazi's bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. It represents the tragedies of war and suffering via images of pained ghost-like figures, deceased civilians and nightmarish, animalistic creatures crying in anguish. 

While desperately sad, the work has become an iconic anti-war symbol. On completion, Guernica was showcased around the world during a brief tour, which helped to bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention.

This colourful version is quite the statement piece - perfect for sparkling conversation when guests come over.

A serene take on Surrealism, Dalí’s The Meditative Rose is a 1958 piece for those wanting to instill a sense of calm in the home.

A ruby red rose is suspended in the clear blue sky above a desolate landscape, which showcases a couple embracing. A less complex take on a busy Surrealist work, the soothing piece further showcases a single droplet of water on a petal, demonstrating his penchant for realism and capabilities as an artist.