Surrealism is an art and cultural movement that began in Europe after World War I. Artists in this movement wanted to show the hidden thoughts of the mind, often creating strange or dream-like scenes and ideas. According to leader André Breton, the goal was to combine the ideas of dreams and reality into a new kind of reality called "super-reality." Surrealism included works in painting, writing, photography, theater, filmmaking, music, comedy, and other forms of media.
Surrealist works often use surprising elements, unexpected pairings, and ideas that seem unrelated. Many artists and writers in the movement believed their work was first and foremost a way to express a philosophical idea, such as the concept of "pure psychic automatism" described in the first Surrealist Manifesto. They saw their art as results of experiments in surrealism. Breton clearly stated that Surrealism was, above all, a movement that aimed to bring about change. At the time, the movement was connected to political ideas like communism and anarchism. It was inspired by the Dada movement from the 1910s.
The term "Surrealism" was first used by Guillaume Apollinaire in 1917. However, the Surrealist movement officially began after October 1924, when André Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto helped his group claim the term for themselves. A rival group, led by Yvan Goll, had published a similar manifesto two weeks earlier. The main center of the movement was Paris, France. From the 1920s onward, Surrealism spread worldwide, influencing art, literature, theater, film, music, and other fields in many countries and languages. It also affected political ideas, philosophy, and theories about society and culture.
Founding of the movement
The word "surrealism" was first created in March 1917 by Guillaume Apollinaire. He wrote in a letter to Paul Dermée: "All things considered, I think in fact it is better to adopt surrealism than supernaturalism, which I first used."
Apollinaire used the term in his program notes for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, Parade, which premiered on May 18, 1917. Parade had a one-act story by Jean Cocteau and included music by Erik Satie. Cocteau called the ballet "realistic." Apollinaire described it as "surrealistic":
"This new alliance—I say new, because until now scenery and costumes were linked only by factitious bonds—has given rise, in Parade, to a kind of surrealism, which I consider to be the point of departure for a whole series of manifestations of the New Spirit that is making itself felt today and that will certainly appeal to our best minds. We may expect it to bring about profound changes in our arts and manners through universal joyfulness, for it is only natural, after all, that they keep pace with scientific and industrial progress." (Apollinaire, 1917)
Apollinaire used the term again as a subtitle and in the preface to his play Les Mamelles de Tirésias: Drame surréaliste, which was written in 1903 and first performed in 1917.
World War I separated the writers and artists who had been in Paris. During this time, many joined the Dada movement, believing that too much rational thinking and bourgeois values had caused the war. Dadaists protested through anti-art events, performances, writings, and artworks. After the war, when they returned to Paris, Dada activities continued.
During the war, André Breton, who studied medicine and psychiatry, worked in a neurological hospital where he used Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic methods with soldiers who had shell-shock. Breton met the young writer Jacques Vaché and felt Vaché was the spiritual son of writer and pataphysics founder Alfred Jarry. He admired Vaché’s anti-social attitude and dislike for traditional artistic values. Later, Breton wrote, "In literature, I was successively taken with Rimbaud, with Jarry, with Apollinaire, with Nouveau, with Lautréamont, but it is Jacques Vaché to whom I owe the most."
Back in Paris, Breton joined Dada activities and started the literary journal Littérature with Louis Aragon and Philippe Soupault. They experimented with automatic writing—writing spontaneously without censoring their thoughts—and published the writings, as well as accounts of dreams, in the magazine. Breton and Soupault continued writing and developed their techniques of automatism, publishing The Magnetic Fields (1920).
By October 1924, two rival Surrealist groups formed to publish a Surrealist Manifesto. Each claimed to be successors of a revolution started by Apollinaire. One group, led by Yvan Goll, included Pierre Albert-Birot, Paul Dermée, Céline Arnauld, Francis Picabia, Tristan Tzara, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Pierre Reverdy, Marcel Arland, Joseph Delteil, Jean Painlevé, and Robert Delaunay, among others. The group led by André Breton claimed that automatism was a better way to bring about societal change than Dada, as led by Tzara, who was now their rival. Breton’s group grew to include writers and artists like Paul Éluard, Benjamin Péret, René Crevel, Robert Desnos, Jacques Baron, Max Morise, Pierre Naville, Roger Vitrac, Gala Éluard, Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí, Luis Buñuel, Man Ray, Hans Arp, Georges Malkine, Michel Leiris, Georges Limbour, Antonin Artaud, Raymond Queneau, André Masson, Joan Miró, Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Prévert, and Yves Tanguy, Dora Maar.
As they developed their philosophy, they believed Surrealism would support the idea that ordinary expressions are important, but their arrangement should be open to the full range of imagination according to the Hegelian Dialectic. They also looked to the Marxist dialectic and the work of theorists like Walter Benjamin and Herbert Marcuse.
Freud’s ideas about free association, dream analysis, and accessing the unconscious were important to the Surrealists in their goal to free the imagination. They embraced unique ideas while rejecting the idea of underlying madness. Dalí later said, "There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad."
In addition to dream analysis, they emphasized that "one could combine inside the same frame, elements not normally found together to produce illogical and startling effects." Breton included this idea in his 1924 manifesto, which was based on a 1918 essay by poet Pierre Reverdy, which said: "a juxtaposition of two more or less distant realities. The more the relationship between the two juxtaposed realities is distant and true, the stronger the image will be—the greater its emotional power and poetic reality."
The group aimed to change human experience in personal, cultural, social, and political ways. They wanted to free people from false rationality and restrictive customs. Breton said the true goal of Surrealism was "long live the social revolution, and it alone!" To this goal, Surrealists sometimes supported communism and anarchism.
In 1924, two Surrealist factions declared their philosophy in two separate Surrealist Manifestos. That same year, the Bureau of Surrealist Research was created and began publishing the journal La Révolution surréaliste.
Before 192
Expansion
In the mid-1920s, Surrealists met in cafes to play drawing games together, discuss Surrealism ideas, and create new techniques like automatic drawing. Breton first thought visual art might not fit Surrealism because it seemed harder to change and less connected to chance. This concern changed when artists discovered methods like frottage, grattage, and decalcomania.
More visual artists joined the movement, including Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Francis Picabia, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dalí, Luis Buñuel, Alberto Giacometti, Valentine Hugo, Méret Oppenheim, Toyen, and Kansuke Yamamoto. Later, after World War II, Enrico Donati, Vinicius Pradella, and Denis Fabbri also became involved. Though Breton admired Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, they stayed on the edges of the group. More writers joined, such as Tristan Tzara, René Char, and Georges Sadoul.
In 1925, a Surrealist group formed in Brussels. Members included E. L. T. Mesens, René Magritte, Paul Nougé, Marcel Lecomte, and André Souris. In 1927, Louis Scutenaire joined the group. They stayed in contact with the Paris group, and by 1927, Goemans and Magritte moved to Paris and became part of Breton’s circle. These artists were influenced by Dada, Cubism, Wassily Kandinsky’s abstract art, Expressionism, and Post-Impressionism. They also looked to older artists like Hieronymus Bosch and primitive art styles.
André Masson’s automatic drawings from 1923 are often seen as a turning point for visual art in Surrealism, showing the influence of the unconscious mind. Another example is Giacometti’s 1925 sculpture Torso, which shows a shift to simple forms inspired by ancient art.
A key example of the difference between Dada and Surrealism is the pairing of Max Ernst’s Little Machine Constructed by Minimax Dadamax in Person (1925) and The Kiss (1927). The first has a distant, hidden meaning, while the second shows an open, direct scene. The Kiss uses fluid lines and colors similar to Miró and Picasso, while the earlier work’s direct style later influenced movements like Pop art.
Giorgio de Chirico helped connect Surrealism’s philosophical and visual sides. His earlier art, like The Red Tower (1913) and The Nostalgia of the Poet (1914), used bold colors and unusual images. He also wrote a novel with strange punctuation and grammar to create mood. His work influenced later Surrealists like Dalí and Magritte, though he left the group in 1928.
In 1924, Miró and Masson began using Surrealism in painting. The first Surrealist art show, La Peinture Surrealiste, opened in Paris in 1925. It featured works by Masson, Man Ray, Paul Klee, Miró, and others. The show proved that Surrealism had a place in visual art, even though some had doubted it. Techniques from Dada, like photomontage, were used in the exhibition. In 1926, Galerie Surréaliste opened with a show by Man Ray. Breton wrote Surrealism and Painting in 1928, summarizing the movement, though he updated it until the 1960s.
According to Breton, the first Surrealist work was Les Chants de Maldoror, and the first book by his group was Les Champs Magnétiques (1919). The magazine Littérature included automatic writing and dream descriptions, focusing on hidden meanings rather than literal ones. Surrealist writers often avoided clear organization, making their work hard to understand at first. However, Breton later admitted that much of their writing was edited, not purely automatic. Techniques like collage were added, inspired by poetry and artists like Magritte, who used unexpected combinations to reveal ideas.
Surrealists revived interest in writers like Isidore Ducasse (pseudonym Comte de Lautréamont) and Arthur Rimbaud, who were seen as early influences. Examples of Surrealist literature include works by Artaud, Aragon, Péret, Crevel, Hedayat, and Breton.
The magazine La Révolution surréaliste continued until 1929, featuring dense text, art reproductions, and works by de Chirico, Ernst, Masson, and Man Ray. Other works included books, poems, and theoretical writings.
Early Surrealist films and photography included works by Dora Maar, Man Ray, Brassaï, Claude Cahun, and Emiel van Moerkerken. In Japan, an exhibition in 1937 showcased Surrealist art, mostly photographs of paintings and objects. Surrealist photography also influenced Japanese avant-garde groups, including poet and photographer Kansuke Yamamoto.
Surrealism and international politics
Surrealism as a political movement developed differently in various parts of the world. In some areas, the focus was on art, while in others, it was on political activities. In some places, Surrealism aimed to go beyond both art and politics. During the 1930s, Surrealist ideas spread from Europe to North America, South America (like the Mandrágora group in Chile in 1938), Central America, the Caribbean, and Asia, as both an artistic style and a political idea.
Politically, Surrealists supported different groups, such as Trotskyists, communists, or anarchists. The split from Dada was partly between anarchists and communists, with many Surrealists being communists. André Breton and his friends supported Leon Trotsky and his group, the International Left Opposition, for a time. Later, some Surrealists, like Benjamin Péret, Mary Low, and Juan Breá, aligned with left communism. When the Dutch photographer Emiel van Moerkerken joined Breton, he refused to sign a manifesto because he was not a Trotskyist. Breton believed being a communist was not enough, so he rejected van Moerkerken’s work, causing a split in Surrealism. Others, like Wolfgang Paalen, wanted to separate art from politics, which influenced later art movements like abstract expressionism. Salvador Dalí supported capitalism and the fascist leader Francisco Franco, but he was seen as having left Surrealism by Breton and others. During the Spanish Civil War, Benjamin Péret, Mary Low, Juan Breá, and Eugenio Fernández Granell joined the POUM.
Breton’s followers, along with the Communist Party, aimed to "free humanity." However, Breton’s group did not always agree with the Communist Party’s focus on workers’ struggles, leading to conflicts in the late 1920s. Some, like Louis Aragon, left Breton’s group to work more closely with communists.
Surrealists often connected their work to political ideas. In 1925, members of the Paris Surrealist group declared their support for revolutionary politics in the Declaration of January 27. By the 1930s, many Surrealists strongly supported communism. A key document was the Manifesto for a Free Revolutionary Art, written by André Breton and Leon Trotsky but published under Breton and Diego Rivera’s names.
In 1933, Surrealists argued that "proletarian literature" in capitalist societies was impossible, leading to a break with the Association des Ecrivains et Artistes Révolutionnaires and the expulsion of Breton, Paul Éluard, and Robert Desnos from the Communist Party.
In 1925, the Paris Surrealists and the extreme left of the French Communist Party supported Abd-el-Krim, a leader in Morocco fighting against French colonial rule. They wrote an open letter to French ambassador Paul Claudel, stating they wanted to turn colonial wars into civil wars and support the revolution.
The 1932 document Murderous Humanitarianism, written by Robert Desnos and signed by Breton, Éluard, and others, is considered an early example of "black Surrealism." This idea was later developed by Aimé Césaire, who worked with Breton in Martinique. The journal Tropiques, which included work by Césaire and others, was first published in 1941.
In 1938, Breton and his wife, painter Jacqueline Lamba, traveled to Mexico to meet Leon Trotsky. There, Breton saw the work of artist Frida Kahlo and called her an "innate" Surrealist.
In 1929, a group linked to the journal Le Grand Jeu was excluded from Surrealism. Later, Breton asked Surrealists to evaluate their "moral competence," and those who refused to support group actions were removed. Some, like Georges Bataille, created a new group called Documents, which focused on human instincts but ended in 1931.
After these conflicts, some Surrealists reconciled, like Breton and Bataille. Others, like Aragon, left the group to join the Communist Party. Over time, more members were removed for political or personal reasons.
By the end of World War II, Breton’s Surrealist group openly supported anarchism. In 1952, he wrote that Surrealism first recognized itself in "the black mirror of anarchism." He supported the French Anarchist Federation and its later form, the Fédération Communiste Libertaire, even during the Algerian war. He helped hide a leader of the group, Fontenis, and avoided taking sides in splits within the French anarchist movement. He also supported the new Fédération anarchiste.
Golden age
During the 1930s, Surrealism became more visible to the public. A Surrealist group formed in London. Breton said the 1936 London International Surrealist Exhibition was a major event and became a model for international exhibitions. Another group formed in Birmingham, England. This group opposed the London Surrealists and preferred the French roots of Surrealism. The two groups later resolved their differences.
Dalí and Magritte created the most well-known images of the movement. Dalí joined the group in 1929. He helped create the visual style of Surrealism from 1930 to 1935.
Surrealism used a method to show psychological truths. Artists took everyday objects and changed their usual meaning to create images that were not ordinary. These images aimed to evoke emotions from viewers.
In 1931, several Surrealist painters made important changes in their styles. For example, Magritte painted Voice of Space (La Voix des airs), showing three large spheres hanging above a landscape. Yves Tanguy painted Promontory Palace (Palais promontoire), with melted and liquid shapes. Liquid shapes became a key feature in Dalí’s work, especially in The Persistence of Memory, which shows melting watches.
The style of Surrealism combined realistic images, abstract shapes, and psychological themes. This style reflected how people felt isolated in the modern world, while also showing a deeper connection to the human mind.
Between 1930 and 1933, the Surrealist Group in Paris published a magazine called Le Surréalisme au service de la révolution, which followed La Révolution surréaliste.
From 1936 to 1938, Wolfgang Paalen, Gordon Onslow Ford, and Roberto Matta joined the group. Paalen introduced a technique called Fumage, and Onslow Ford developed Coulage.
Even after conflicts caused the Surrealist group to break apart, Magritte and Dalí continued to influence art. Their work extended to photography, as seen in a self-portrait by Man Ray, which inspired Robert Rauschenberg’s collage boxes.
During the 1930s, Peggy Guggenheim, an American art collector, married Max Ernst. She promoted the work of other Surrealists, including Yves Tanguy and John Tunnard.
Major Exhibitions in the 1930s
World War II caused problems for people in Europe, especially for artists and writers who opposed Fascism and Nazism. Many artists fled to North America for safety. In New York City, artists like Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, and Robert Motherwell were influenced by Surrealist ideas, even though they had some doubts. Ideas about dreams and the unconscious were quickly adopted. By World War II, American artists in New York shifted toward Abstract Expressionism, supported by figures like Peggy Guggenheim, Leo Steinberg, and Clement Greenberg. However, Abstract Expressionism grew directly from the meeting of American artists with European Surrealists who had fled the war. Gorky and Paalen influenced this art form, which, like Surrealism, celebrated creativity as a human act. Early works by Abstract Expressionists show strong connections to Surrealism. Later, Dadaistic humor appeared in artists like Rauschenberg, showing a deeper link. Until Pop Art emerged, Surrealism was the most important influence on American art. Even in Pop Art, some Surrealist humor appeared, often used for cultural criticism.
World War II disrupted Surrealist activity for a time. In 1939, Wolfgang Paalen left Paris for the New World. After traveling through British Columbia, he settled in Mexico and started a magazine called Dyn. In 1940, Yves Tanguy married Kay Sage, an American Surrealist painter. In 1941, Breton went to the United States, where he co-founded a short-lived magazine VVV with Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, and David Hare. However, the American poet Charles Henri Ford and his magazine View helped Breton promote Surrealism in the U.S. A special issue of View about Marcel Duchamp was important for understanding Surrealism in America. It explained Duchamp’s connections to Surrealist methods and showed how he linked earlier art movements like Futurism and Cubism to Surrealism. In 1942, Wolfgang Paalen left the group because of disagreements with Breton.
Even during the war, Surrealist artists continued their work. Magritte, for example, kept exploring his themes. Many Surrealists stayed in contact and met regularly. Dalí, though excommunicated by Breton, did not abandon his earlier themes, such as the idea of time’s persistence. His work from this period did not change as much as some people believed. Some, like André Thirion, said Dalí’s later work still had relevance to Surrealism. In 1941, during the Belfast Blitz, Colin Middleton, who had used Surrealist themes in the 1930s, painted dark works showing the shock of the people in Belfast. These were displayed in 1943 after the city’s museum was restored.
During the 1940s, Surrealism influenced art in England, America, and the Netherlands. Gertrude Pape and her husband Theo van Baaren helped spread Surrealism through their magazine The Clean Handkerchief. Mark Rothko was interested in unusual shapes, and in England, artists like Henry Moore, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, and Paul Nash used Surrealist techniques. Conroy Maddox, one of the first British Surreal
Post-Breton Surrealism
Afro-Surrealism is an art and literary movement mainly found among people of African descent in various countries. It is inspired by Négritude and postcolonial literature and sometimes overlaps with these movements.
In the 1960s, artists and writers linked to the Situationist International were closely connected to Surrealism. While Guy Debord was critical of Surrealism and kept his distance, others, like Asger Jorn, used Surrealist methods and techniques. During the events of May 1968 in France, Surrealist ideas appeared in student slogans painted on walls at the Sorbonne. Joan Miró later created a painting titled May 1968 to honor this time. Some groups, such as the Revolutionary Surrealist Group, were more closely tied to Surrealism than other movements.
In the 1980s, Surrealism entered politics again behind the Iron Curtain, where it became part of an underground artistic movement called the Orange Alternative. This group was formed in 1981 by Waldemar Fydrych, a graduate of history and art history at the University of Wrocław. They used Surrealist symbols and language in large events held in Polish cities during the Jaruzelski regime. They also painted Surrealist graffiti over anti-government messages. Fydrych wrote a "Manifesto of Socialist Surrealism," in which he claimed the communist system had become so Surrealist that it resembled art itself.
Surrealist art remains popular in museums. In 1999, the Guggenheim Museum in New York hosted an exhibit called Two Private Eyes. In 2001, Tate Modern in London held a Surrealist art show that attracted over 170,000 visitors. In 2002, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris organized exhibitions titled Desire Unbound and La Révolution surréaliste, respectively. Between 2021 and 2022, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Tate Modern co-organized Surrealism Beyond Borders, an exhibition that featured works from 45 or more countries across nearly eight decades. This event aimed to examine Surrealism’s connections across different countries, not just in Western Europe.
Surrealist groups and publications continue to be active today. Examples include the Chicago Surrealist Group, the Leeds Surrealist Group, Peculiar Mormyrid, and The Surrealist Group in Stockholm. Jan Švankmajer, a member of the Czech-Slovak Surrealists, continues to create films and experiment with objects.
Impact and influences
Surrealism is often linked to the arts, but it has also influenced many other areas. Surrealism is not only about people who call themselves Surrealists or those approved by Breton. Instead, it includes many creative actions that challenge rules and aim to free the imagination. Surrealist ideas are based on the thoughts of Hegel, Marx, and Freud. Supporters believe Surrealism uses a way of thinking called dialectical thought. Surrealist artists were also inspired by people like the alchemists, Dante, Hieronymus Bosch, the Marquis de Sade, Charles Fourier, Comte de Lautréamont, and Arthur Rimbaud.
Surrealists think that cultures outside of Western traditions offer inspiration because they may help balance practical thinking with imagination better than Western culture. Surrealism has affected radical and revolutionary politics. Some Surrealists joined political groups, while others influenced change by showing how freeing the mind and imagination can help break free from unfair social systems. This was clear during the New Left of the 1960s and 1970s and the French revolt of May 1968, which used the slogan "All power to the imagination."
Many literary movements in the second half of the 20th century were influenced by Surrealism. This time is called the Postmodern era. Though Postmodernism has no single definition, many of its themes and methods are similar to Surrealism.
The First Papers of Surrealism was an exhibition that showed the first major step toward installation art by the avant-garde. Many writers from the Beat Generation were influenced by Surrealism. Philip Lamantia and Ted Joans are often called both Beat and Surrealist writers. Other Beat writers, like Bob Kaufman, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, also show Surrealist influence. Artaud was especially important to the Beats, and Ginsberg said Artaud’s work directly inspired his poem "Howl." The structure of Breton’s "Free Union" influenced Ginsberg’s "Kaddish." In Paris, Ginsberg and Corso met artists like Tristan Tzara, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and Benjamin Péret. Ginsberg kissed Duchamp’s feet to show admiration, and Corso cut off Duchamp’s tie.
William S. Burroughs, a Beat writer and postmodern novelist, created the "cut-up technique" with Brion Gysin. This method uses chance to arrange text from words cut from other sources. Burroughs called it the "Surrealist Lark" and acknowledged its connection to Tristan Tzara’s methods.
Postmodern novelist Thomas Pynchon, influenced by Beat fiction, used Surrealist ideas of surprising combinations in his work. He said such combinations need care and skill. Spike Jones Jr., whose father’s music influenced him, once said replacing a musical note with a sound must match the note’s character to work well.
Many postmodern writers, like Paul Auster and Salman Rushdie, were influenced by Surrealism. David Lynch, a filmmaker, is often called a Surrealist. Donald Barthelme and Robert Coover are also frequently compared to Surrealism.
Magic realism, a style used by many Latin American writers, shares similarities with Surrealism, such as mixing everyday life with dream-like elements. Gabriel García Márquez is an example. Carlos Fuentes was inspired by Surrealist poetry and the influence of Breton and Artaud in Mexico. Though Surrealism influenced Magic Realism early on, some writers and critics say Magic Realism differs in its focus on psychology and European culture. Alejo Carpentier, a Magic Realist, was influenced by Surrealism but later criticized its separation of real and unreal ideas.
After André Breton died in 1966, Surrealism continued through individuals and groups. The original Paris Surrealist Group ended in 1969, but a new group formed later. The current Paris Surrealist Group recently published a journal called Alcheringa. The Czech-Slovak Surrealist Group never ended and continues to publish Analogon, now with nearly 100 volumes.
Surrealist theatre, especially Artaud’s "Theatre of Cruelty," inspired playwrights grouped by Martin Esslin as the "Theatre of the Absurd." These playwrights, like Eugène Ionesco and Samuel Beckett, were influenced by Surrealism. Ionesco said Breton was one of the most important thinkers in history. Beckett even translated Surrealist poetry into English.
Alice Farley is an artist who became active in the 1970s in San Francisco. She trained in dance at the California Institute of the Arts and uses colorful costumes to show characters’ thoughts. She often works with musicians like Henry Threadgill and explores improvisation in dance. Farley has participated in surrealist events, including the World Surrealist Exhibition in Chicago in 1976.
Alleged precursors in older art
Some older artists are sometimes considered early influences on Surrealism. Among them are Hieronymus Bosch and Giuseppe Arcimboldo, whom Salvador Dalí called the "father of Surrealism." Other artists, such as Joos de Momper, are sometimes linked to Surrealism for creating landscapes that resemble human figures. However, many critics believe these works are better classified as part of fantastic art rather than being closely connected to Surrealism.