irreéalistes

Irreéalistes is a term used in art criticism to describe artists and writers who emphasize unreality over realistic depiction. Rather than constituting a single formal movement, it denotes a loose descriptive category applied to diverse practitioners across different periods and regions who foreground dreamlike, fantastical, or illogical elements in their work.

In French-, Spanish-, and Portuguese-language criticism, irreéalistes is used for creators who reject naturalistic representation and foreground imagination, the subconscious, or the uncanny. The term is sometimes associated with surrealism or magical realism, but it does not imply a uniform doctrine, school, or manifesto.

Common features include a focus on imagination and dream logic, metamorphosis, symbolic imagery, and the juxtaposition of incongruous elements. Works labeled irreéalistes often blur the boundary between reality and fantasy, inviting multiple interpretations and challenging straightforward readings of the world.

The term mainly appears in modernist and postmodern criticism and can apply to painting, poetry, and prose, as well as other media. Some critics treat irreéalistes as a historical phase in a given region, while others use it as a generic descriptor for unrealisitic aesthetics within broader movements.

Today, irreéalistes is used more as a critical label than as a formal movement. It serves to identify artistic approaches that resist plain realism and explore the terrain where perception, memory, and imagination intersect.