The word "surreal" is often used colloquially to describe unexpected juxtapositions or use of non-sequiturs in art or dialogue.

When the concept of surrealism has been "applied" by associated groups of individuals, it has often been called a "surrealist movement," whether cultural,artistic or social.

Cause : Horrors of World War I

Surrealist thoughts emerged around 1920, partly as an outgrowth of Dada, with French writer André Breton as its initial principal theorist. Like those involved in Dadam, adherents of Surrealism thought that the horrors of World War I were the culmination of the Industrial Revolution anmd the result of the rational mind.

Belief In Superior Reality

Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations, in the omnipotence of dream, in the disinterested play of thought.

Exposing Psychological Truth

Surrealism as a visual movement had found a method: to expose psychological truth by stripping ordinary objects of their normal significance, in order to create a compelling image that was beyond ordinary formal organization, in order to evoke empathy from the viewer.

Expression of the Philosophical Movement

Many Surrealist artists regarded their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, and Breton was explicit in his belief that Surrealism was above all a revolutionary movement.

Roots of Surrealism

The roots of Surrealism in the visual arts run to both Dada and Cubism, as well as the abstraction of Wassily Kandinsky and Expressionism, as well as Post-Impressionism, and also partake of older "bloodlines" such as Hieronymus Bosch, and so-called "primitive" and "naive" arts. Technique was beside the point, mere ornament or simple retinal stimulation was anathema, as the Surrealists claimed visual arts as a subsidiary of Poetry, and hoped to inflame human desires directly via their images.

The fact that the first Surrealists were not visual artists but poets speaks volumes about the poetic and philosophical basis of Surrealism.

During the 1930s Peggy Guggenheim, an important art collector married Max Ernst and began promoting work by other Surrealists such as Yves Tanguy and the British artist John Tunnard. However, by the outbreak of the Second World War, the taste of the avant-garde swung decisively towards Abstract Expressionism with the support of key taste makers, including Guggenheim.

The early work of many Abstract Expressionists reveals a tight bond between the more superficial aspects of both movements, and the emergence (at a later date) of aspects of Dadaistic humor in such artists as Rauschenberg sheds an even starker light upon the connection.

Emergence of Pop Art

Up until the emergence of Pop Art, Surrealism can be seen to have been the single most important influence on the sudden growth in American arts, and even in Pop, some of the humor manifested in Surrealism can be found, often turned to a cultural criticism.

Surrealism has had an impact in many other fields.

Artists

Giorgio de Chirico was one of the important joining figures between the philosophical and visual aspects of Surrealism.

In 1924, Miro and Masson applied Surrealism theory to painting explicitly leading to the La Peinture Surrealiste Exposition at Gallerie Pierre in 1925, which included work by Man Ray, Masson, Klee and Miró among others. It confirmed that Surrealism had a component in the visual arts (though it had been initially debated whether this was possible), techniques from Dada, such as photomontage were used.

Dalí and Magritte created the most widely recognized images of the movement. Dalí joined the group in 1929, and participated in the rapid establishment of the visual style between 1930 and 1935.

In Nutshell

Terminology
Term coined by French poet Guillaume Apollinaire in 1917 in reference to his own writings, as well as the work of certain painters, such as Picasso and Marc Chagall. In 1924, one of the founders, André Breton, revived the term in his Manifesto of Surrealism, where he describes a "super-reality" connecting the dream world and reality.
Artists
André Breton, Salvador Dali, Paul Delvaux, Max Ernst, Joan Miro, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Frida Kahlo, René Magritte, André Masson, Man Ray, Yves Tanguy, Paul Klee, Giorgio de Chirico, Herbert Beyer, and Méret Oppenheim.
Timeline
1924-1945.
Started In
Originated in France, spread to rest of Europe, the United States and Latin America.
About
Although similar to Dada in irrationality, Surrealism is more positive in spirit. The movement is mostly concerned with different aspects of the unconscious mind and representations of the dream state.
Theme
Everyday objects in absurd situations, often mixed with psychoanalytic thinking. Other works are non-objective.
Art Style
Three main stylistic divisions of Surrealism are evident: Automatism, wherein the artist attempts to disengage conscious control in the creative act; Veristic, in which the style is very realistic and detailed although the subject matter appears irrational; and Assemblage, in which unrelated objects are juxtaposed in suggestion of an alternate reality.
Known Work
DALI, The Persistence of Memory, 1931.
DALI, Premonition of Civil War, 1936.
Inspiration
Hallucinatory writings of 19th century poets, Symbolism, Dada, and Freud's theories of the unconscious.
Become Inspiration Of
Abstract Expressionism and Post-Modernism.