Surrealism

Surrealism is the art movement that had developed in the early 20th century in France. This term was first used in Guillaume Apollinaire's game Les Mamelles de Tirésias in 1917 (the author used the term surreal - "above reality"). Developed out of the Dada movement during the first World War and also influenced by Freud's psychoanalysis (dreaming, ego, superego). The main goal of surrealism is to free the mind of the author which results into creations like automatic texts, pictures of mysterious objects, well known objects altered so as they can be percieved different than in reality or combinations of elements that can not normally be combined.

French writer and physician André Breton is considered to be the founder of this movement. In 1924, his group published a surrealistic manifesto, which defines the basic goals and tools of surrealism - the effort to free the mind, spontaneous expression without censorship, the analysis of dreams. The list of famous surrealistic artists includes painters like Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Paul Klee or Man Ray. The beginning of the czech surrealism dates back to 1934 when the surrealistic group around Vítězslav Nezval was established. Among the important members belonged Karel Teige and Jindřich Štýrský .

The greatest surge of surrealism dates back to the 1930s and ends with the onset of the Second World War. The end of surrealism, as a separate movement, is associated with the death of André Breton in 1966. Surrealism also affected many artists of postmodernism .