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Surrealism

Surrealism was an artistic and literary movement led by André Breton from 1924 to World War II, aiming to challenge rational thought and explore the subconscious mind. It built upon Dada principles but systematized them through Freud's theories, emphasizing automatism and dream imagery. The movement was centered in Paris and featured a diverse group of artists engaging in collective actions to reveal hidden psychological forces.

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16 views2 pages

Surrealism

Surrealism was an artistic and literary movement led by André Breton from 1924 to World War II, aiming to challenge rational thought and explore the subconscious mind. It built upon Dada principles but systematized them through Freud's theories, emphasizing automatism and dream imagery. The movement was centered in Paris and featured a diverse group of artists engaging in collective actions to reveal hidden psychological forces.

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nataliab96
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Surrealism

Surrealism
This text is provided courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art.

André Breton, the leader of the Surrealism movement

Surrealism was an artistic, intellectual, and literary movement led by poet André Breton from 1924
through World War II. The Surrealists sought to overthrow the oppressive rules of modern society by
demolishing its backbone of rational thought. To do so, they attempted to tap into the “superior
reality” of the subconscious mind. “Completely against the tide,” said Breton, “in a violent reaction
against the impoverishment and sterility of thought processes that resulted from centuries of
rationalism, we turned toward the marvelous and advocated it unconditionally.”

Many of the tenets of Surrealism, including an emphasis on automatism, experimental uses of


language, and found objects, had been present to some degree in the Dada movement that
preceded it. However, the Surrealists systematized these strategies within the framework of
psychologist Sigmund Freud’s theories on dreams and the subconscious mind. In his 1924 Surrealist
Manifesto, Breton defined Surrealism as “Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one
proposes to express…the actual functioning of thought…in the absence of any control exercised by
reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.”

ReadWorks.org
© 2018 The Museum of Modern Art. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Surrealism

Dada & Surrealism


While Dada was decentralized in terms of geography and leadership, the center of Surrealism was
Paris, with Breton unequivocally at the helm. While Dada was in many ways an anarchic movement,
the Surrealists were known for engaging in collective group actions.

The Surrealist circle was relatively cohesive, but the individuals within it hailed from a variety of
nations, and their artistic approaches were similarly diverse. They believed that automatic drawings
unlocked the contents of the subconscious mind, while hyper-real landscape paintings conjured the
uncanny imagery of dreams. Incongruous combinations of found objects combined in Surrealist
assemblages revealed the fraught psychological forces they believed were hidden just beneath the
surface of reality.

ReadWorks.org
© 2018 The Museum of Modern Art. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.

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