What is Surrealism ?

Surrealism began in the 1920's as a cultural movement, the aim of it was to resolve contradictions of the differences between dream and reality. Artists began to use everyday objects and turn them in to strange creatures, also illogical scenes were created with photographic precison along side developing painting techniques which were expressed through the unconscious mind. With surrealist work the main element is surprise and different juxtapositions. Surrealist artists would describe their work as being an artifcat due to the fact that they follow the expresson of the philosophical movment which is the increase or a indentifiable sea-change in philosophical thought on a particular subject. There was a huge developement around the first World War with surrealism due to the Dada activities which was a group of artists in Zurich, Switzerland formed in 1916 but the most important center of the movement was paris. This movemnt spread around the world around the 1920's which eventually had an affect on the visual arts, film and music and also literature across many different countries. Political thoughts and practices were also affect along side philosophy and social theory.