Surrealism, movement in literature and the fine arts, founded by French poet and critic André Breton in Paris in 1924. Surrealism grew out of the movement known as dadaism (see Dada). Like dadaism, surrealism emphasized the role of the unconscious in creative activity, but it employed the psychic unconscious in a more orderly and more serious manner.
The surrealists claimed as their literary forebears a long line of writers, including the Comte de Lautréamont. Besides Breton, other French writers connected with the movement include Paul éluard, Louis Aragon, René Crevel, and Philippe Soupault. Pure surrealist writers employed automatism, wherein they wrote whatever words came into their conscious mind. They did not alter what they wrote, under the theory that this free flow of thought would establish a rapport with the subconscious mind of their readers. Surrealists broke accepted rules of work and personal conduct in order to liberate their sense of inner truth. The movement spread all over the world and flourished in the United States during World War II (1939-1945).
In painting and sculpture surrealism is one of the leading influences of the 20th century. Surrealists often employed abstract and fantastic shapes and forms, with a great variety of content and technique. Members of the movement included German artist Max Ernst, French artist Jean Arp, American painter and photographer Man Ray, French painter André Masson, Spanish painter Joan Mirú, French-American painter Yves Tanguy, Belgian artist René Magritte, Swiss sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti, and Catalan painter Salvador Dalớ. An American offshoot of surrealism is the group of artists known as the magic realists, which includes Paul Cadmus, George Tooker, Ivan Le Lorraine Albright, Philip Evergood, Peter Blume, Louis Guglielmi, and Joseph Cornell.