Magic Realism: Defining the Indefinite

Abstract

The vast quantity of art that includes imaginative, fantastic, or odd imagery has provoked its often intended confusion not only in the minds of viewers in general but also in the minds of the art historians who struggle to define it and categorize it. In the twentieth century, the most accepted historical categorization of one aspect of such art is Surrealism. Yet a style that encompasses such widely differing imagery as that of Magritte, Miró, Dalí, and Masson is certainly flexible in its boundaries. Imaginative art has a free-form, rather ahistorical quality that frustrates even its most committed advocates. For example, in the letter inviting me to contribute to this issue of Art Journal, the co-editors wrote that they intended to offer “a survey of visionary/imagist/narrative art in America. We are still somewhat unclear on exactly what to call this phenomenon and have settled tentatively on ‘An American Tendency,’ with ‘The Visionary Impulse’ being a close second.” I empathize with their quandary; such double-slashed, triple-termed inventions as “visionary/imagist/narrative” show an understanding of the complexity of the problem.

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