Born of Dadaism, Surrealism was born in the early 1920s as an artistic and literary movement seeking to express unconscious thoughts and sensations.
Officially launched in Paris in 1924 with the publication of the Surrealist Manifesto, written by André Breton (1896-1966), Surrealism began as an international intellectual and political movement. Breton was influenced by Dadaism, by theories and studies related to dreams developed by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and by political ideas of Karl Marx (1818-1883). Initially reluctant to associate with plastic artists, surrealist poets felt that deliberate artistic creation was incompatible with their spontaneity and unhindered expression. But they respected some artists and soon realized that these two forms of expression worked in perfect harmony. Max Ernst (1891-1976) was one of the first to explore Surrealism as an artistic movement. Searching for the unconscious through Freudian methods of free association, trance states or dreams, several surrealists practiced psychic "automation." It is an automatic process of writing or drawing that interrupts consciousness, giving way to words and images of the unconscious. Because it freed the unconscious in this way, Surrealism was an individual expression, since no artist has ever worked in the same way.

Influenced by Freud's psychoanalytic theories, Dadaism and the work of Giorgio de Chirico, many surrealists painted dreamlike scenes and inconsistent juxtapositions, exploring and identifying the processes of the unconscious. The unusual images and symbols, the emphasis on the unconscious and the disregard of conventions opened the way to art.

MAIN ARTISTS: RENÉ MAGRITTE • SALVADOR DALÍ • JOAN MIRÓ • MAX ERNST • ANDRÉ MASSON