Surrealism

Surrealism is a culture movement that emerged in Europe following the First World War, in which artists exhibited unsettling and illogical scenarios while devising different means to convey what happens in an unconscious mind.

Its founder, André Breton, said that the purpose of Surrealism was to "resolve the formerly incompatible circumstances of reality and dream into an ultimate reality, a super reality," or Surrealism. Surrealism emerged not only in paintings, but also in literature, theater, cinema, and photography, among other mediums.

Surrealist works have elements of surprise, unanticipated juxtapositions, and non sequitur. However, many Surrealism artists and authors consider their work to be primarily an expression of the intellectual movement (such as Breton's "pure psychological automatism" from the original Surrealist Manifesto), with the artworks themselves as secondary (i.e., products of surrealist experimentation).

Breton said unequivocally that the Surrealist style was, above everything, a social revolution. The movement was affiliated with political reasons such as anarchism and communism during the time.

Still, despite early development, the Surrealist ideology was not officially created until late October 1925, when the Surrealism Manifesto issued by French critic and poet André Breton managed to seize the term over a rival party headed by Yvan Goll, a man who had released his own surrealism manifesto two weeks earlier.

Emergence: 20th century

Outstanding artists: Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, André Masson