Surrealism was an artistic, cultural and intellectual movement. It sought to liberate the mind through the unconscious thus making the thought process "more than real" or "sur-real".

It aimed to instigate a personal, cultural, political and social revolution, changing life through freedom, poetry, love, sexuality.

Some surrealists were sympathetic to communism, anarchism, in order to bring about radical, political and social change. The word "surreal" is often used to describe unexpected juxtapositions in art.

Surrealists believed that the horrors of World War I brought about irrational thought and dream-states which was a natural way of blocking out such problems.

Surrealist artists compared their theories with "primitive art" which they saw as an example of expression that is free and not self-censored.

The Surrealists developed techniques in art such as automatic drawing, automatic painting, and other significant workings.

Surrealist painting naturally emphasised free form, an alternative to the Cubist movement which emphasised form and content. Psychoanalist Sigmund Freud was the main influence, and the surrealist images are confusing and startling as those in dreams.

Although Surrealist works were realistic, they presented dreamlike fantasies. Some works were abstract, others very spontaneous as in the 'free association' technique which wanted no conscious control, so that the workings of the unconscious mind could function inhindered.

Copyright Margaret Houghton