History
Surrealism emerged in the aftermath of World War I, originating in Paris during the 1920s. It was spearheaded by the poet and theorist André Breton, who published the first Surrealist Manifesto in 1924. “Beloved imagination, what I most like in you is your unsparing quality,” he wrote. The movement sought to explore the subconscious and unleash the creative potential of the mind, liberating art from the constraints of rationalism and conventional norms.
Surrealist artists sought inspiration from dreams, free association (the mental process by which one word or image may spontaneously suggest another), and automatic writing (the act of producing written words without consciously writing) to depict fantastical and often bizarre imagery. These artists, including Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, and Max Ernst, created thought-provoking works that challenged societal norms and conventions.
