Movements
Surrealism
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
Surrealism was a movement in art and thought, launched formally in Paris in 1924 with Andre Breton's Surrealist Manifesto, that sought to unlock the unconscious mind through techniques such as automatic writing and dream imagery. In painting it produced both meticulously rendered dreamlike scenes and looser automatist experiments, and its influence extended into film, photography and literature well beyond the movement's own formal boundaries.
Facts
Founded In PlaceParis, France, launched formally with Andre Breton 1924 Surrealist Manifesto 1 Key PrincipleAndre Breton's Manifeste du surrealisme, published 15 October 1924, defined Surrealism as pure psychic automatism intended to express the real functioning of thought, in writing or by any other means, free of reason, aesthetic or moral concern. 2 Key PrincipleUnlocking the unconscious mind through techniques such as automatic writing and dream imagery, extending beyond painting into film, photography and literature 1 Disputed
End YearAndre Breton, the movement's founder and chief theorist, died in 1966, and the formal Surrealist group dissolved in 1969. Some historians treat the movement as continuing informally well beyond either date, so no single end year is fully settled. Cross-Tradition Connections
Expressed In
Movement Members
Frida Kahlo, Artists Why this is disputed. Andre Breton and other Surrealists claimed Kahlo as one of their own after seeing her work in the 1930s, but Kahlo herself rejected the label, saying she painted her own reality rather than dreams. Her connection to Surrealism is carried here as a live art historical dispute, not a settled classification.
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Philosophy Atlas: Marxism, was influenced by this subject there.
Sources
1. Gardner's Art Through the Ages
Fred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner), Cengage Learningchapter on Surrealism
1. Gardner's Art Through the Ages
Fred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner), Cengage LearningMovement Members: Frida Kahlo, chapter on twentieth century painting in the Americas, section on Kahlo
1. Gardner's Art Through the Ages
Fred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner), Cengage LearningMovement Members: Salvador Dali, chapter on Surrealism, section on Salvador Dali
1. Gardner's Art Through the Ages
Fred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner), Cengage LearningMovement Members: The Persistence of Memory, chapter on Surrealism, section on Salvador Dali
2. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationSurrealism, Founding of the movement, Surrealist Manifestos sectionQuote, Surrealism, Founding of the movement, Surrealist Manifestos section
Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought.
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Movement Members: Salvador Dali
Andre Breton, as the Surrealist group's founder and self-appointed arbiter of membership, formally expelled Dali in 1934 after a staged "trial," treating him as having betrayed the movement's anti-fascist and anti-commercial politics through his refusal to explicitly denounce fascism and his open embrace of paid commercial and celebrity work, conduct Breton mockingly labeled with an anagram of Dali's own name suggesting greed. A dissenting view, held by Dali himself during his lifetime and shared by many later curators and historians, treats the expulsion as a political purism that cost the movement its most technically gifted and publicly recognized image-maker: Dali continued to identify himself as a Surrealist painter for the rest of his life regardless of the group's formal decision, and it is Dali's own paintings, above nearly every other Surrealist's, that most museum-going audiences today associate with the movement's name.
A dissenting reading, from an independent laneFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner), Gardner's Art Through the Ages, Cengage Learning
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.