Surrealism

• Surrealism began in 1940's between WWI and WWII and still flourishes today. The surrealists celebrated the realm of dreams and the unconscious mind.
• The surrealists were heavily influenced by the work of a psychologist named Sigmund Freud. Freud believed that dreams represent our deepest desires. By studying our dreams we can learn more about the unconscious mind.
• In their effort to understand the unconscious the surrealists created imagery that joined the dream and fantasy world with the everyday, rational world. They frequently used realistic representation but placed objects in unusual settings. They also metamorphisised objects with one another by combining them in unusual or unexpected ways.