Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural and artistic movement that began in the early 1920s, centered in Paris, with influence that spread internationally. It sought to liberate creative expression by exploring the unconscious mind, dreams, and automatic processes, aiming to reveal a reality beyond rational thought.

Origins and aims: Building on Dada and influenced by Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis, surrealists pursued the fusion of dream and reality, often through unexpected juxtapositions. The movement was organized around the writings of poet André Breton, who published the first Surrealist Manifesto in 1924 and helped articulate its principles.

Techniques and figures: Visual artists used automatism, chance operations, frottage, grattage, collage, and the exquisite corpse; writers employed automatic writing and dream narratives. Notable practitioners include Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Yves Tanguy, and André Masson; poets include Paul Éluard and Louis Aragon. The later work of Giorgio de Chirico and other metaphysical painters also influenced Surrealism.

Legacy: Surrealism profoundly influenced modern art, literature, theater, and cinema, contributing to experimental film (notably the collaborations with Luis Buñuel) and shaping later avant-garde movements. Politically, many surrealists supported leftist causes in the 1920s and 1930s; the formal group dissolved during the late 1930s and 1940s, but its methods and imagery persisted in diverse forms and movements worldwide.