Surrealism

French writer André Breton produced this twentieth century avant-garde movement. Surrealism is influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud, the images found to be as confusing and startling as those of dreams. Surrealist works sometimes used "free association" as a means to eliminate conscious control to be able to express the workings of the unconscious mind. Surrealism may also use a realistic but irrational style, precisely describing dreamlike fantasies. Some Surrealists are René Magritte, Salvador Dali, Yves Tanguy, Joan Miró, Max Ernst and André Masson.

An art style developed in Europe in
the 1920s, characterized by using the subconscious
as a source of creativity to liberate pictorial subjects
and ideas. Surrealist paintings often depict
unexpected or irrational objects in an atmosphere of
fantasy, creating a dream-like scenario.