Surrealism: The Visual Encyclopedia of Art

Surrealism was born to affirm unlimited faith in the genius of youth." – Andre Breton Literary surrealism begins with the death of dada in 1924; a movement to liberate expressive form, to release the world of the subconscious, of dreams and nightmares, paranoia, suppressed eroticism, and the dark side of the mind. Humor, extravagance, cruelty and anguish "outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupations" recur in the art of Max Ernst, Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali, Paul Delvaux, Yves Tanguy, Joan Miro, Jean (Hans) Arp, Henry Moore and Man Ray among others.