Surrealism

Introduction & Top Questions
Characteristics
Surrealist artists
Surrealist techniques
Women artists

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images, Videos & Interactives

Detail from Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory showing two melting clocks draped over a ledge and an abstract form, illustrating surrealism and the distortion of time.

Salvador Dalí: The Persistence of Memory

Create your own exquisite corpse with Britannica's Exquisite Corpse Experience!

At a Glance

Surrealism summary

Quizzes

Color pastels, colored chalk, colorful chalk. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, history and society

Ultimate Art Quiz

Related Questions

How did André Breton define Surrealism in The Surrealist Manifesto?
How did André Breton’s novel Nadja combine daily life with psychological disturbance?
How did British Surrealism develop in London and Birmingham during the 1930s?
How did Dorothea Tanning portray young women in her Surrealist paintings?
How did Leonora Carrington’s Irish folklore influences appear in her work?
How did Leonora Carrington’s move to Mexico influence her art?
How did Leonora Carrington’s relationship with Max Ernst connect her to the Surrealist group?
How did Meret Oppenheim use found objects in Object from 1936?
How did Pablo Picasso’s art connect with Surrealist ideas even though he was not an official member?
How did René Magritte create irrational scenes from ordinary objects?
How did Roberto Matta use biomorphic forms in his Surrealist paintings?
How did Salvador Dalí use realistic painting to depict dreamlike scenes?
How did Salvador Dalí’s paranoiac-critical method guide his painting?
How did Sigmund Freud’s ideas influence Surrealist artists and writers?
How did Surrealism differ from Dadaism?
How did Surrealism influence Abstract Expressionism in the United States?
How did Surrealism influence artists in Latin America?
How did Surrealist art differ from Cubism?
How did Surrealists challenge rationalism in European culture?
How did Wifredo Lam connect Surrealism with his African Cuban heritage?
How did World War I contribute to the rise of Surrealism?
How did World War II affect Surrealist artists and the spread of Surrealism?
How did Yves Tanguy’s paintings combine recognizable detail with ambiguous forms?
How did automatic drawing help Surrealist artists explore the unconscious?
How did grattage create suggestive images on a painted canvas?
How did organic Surrealism use biomorphic forms?
How did the Birmingham Surrealist group differ from the London Surrealist group?
How did the exquisite corpse game create collaborative Surrealist artworks?
How did the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and Francisco Goya influence Surrealism?
What are the two major approaches to Surrealist painting?
What images appear in Leonora Carrington’s Self-Portrait: The Inn of the Dawn Horse?
What subjects appeared in Leonora Carrington’s Surrealist art and writing?
When did the Surrealist movement flourish in Europe?
Which Surrealist artists used organic or absolute Surrealism?
Which Surrealist films did Salvador Dalí make with Luis Buñuel?
Which artists practiced Surrealism without officially joining the Surrealist group?
Which earlier artists influenced Surrealist painting?
Which poets were important to the Surrealist movement?
Who first used the term “Surrealism” in 1917?
Who wrote The Surrealist Manifesto in 1924?
Who wrote the First English Surrealist Manifesto in 1935?
Why did André Breton demand strict loyalty from members of the Surrealist movement?
Why did André Breton want to unite conscious and unconscious experience through art?
Why is Meret Oppenheim’s fur-covered cup, saucer, and spoon considered Surrealist?
Why were artists expelled from the Surrealist group?
Why were dreams important to Surrealism?
What was Surrealism and its goal?
What are the characteristics of Surrealism?
How are Surrealism and Dada related?
Which artists practiced Surrealism?
Who first used the word Surrealism?
What inspired Percy Bysshe Shelley to write “Ozymandias”?
What does “Ozymandias” mean?
What is the irony of the poem “Ozymandias”?
Is “Vande Mataram” the national song of India?
What is Lyrical Ballads?

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External Websites

Smarthistory - Surrealism, an introduction
Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism - Surrealism Overview
TheArtStory - Surrealism
ABC listen - ABC Radio National|Late Night Live - Surrealism turns 100: moving beyond lobsters and melting clocks
BBC - Seven artworks exploding the myth of a movement
Open Library Publishing Platform - Surrealism
The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Surrealism
Colorado Community College SystemÂ’s Open Textbook - Modern Civilizations - Surrealism (PDF)
Academy of American Poets - A Brief Guide to Surrealism
Hawaii University - Manifesto of Surrealism (PDF)
Humanities LibreTexts - Surrealism (1920-1950)
Victoria and Albert Museum - Surrealism and design
Art in Context - Surrealism Art Â– A Deep Dive Into the Surrealism Art Movement

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Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Surrealism - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Surrealism

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History

Surrealism, movement in visual art and literature, flourishing in Europe between World Wars I and II. Surrealism grew principally out of the earlier Dada movement, which before World War I produced works of anti-art that deliberately defied reason; but Surrealism’s emphasis was not on negation but on positive expression. The movement represented a reaction against what its members saw as the destruction wrought by the “rationalism” that had guided European culture and politics in the...

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