Art

Unlike the vast majority of art movements in recorded history, the Surrealist movement eludes description or classification based solely on technical specifications or aesthetic theories.  In order to understand the Surrealist movement in the visual arts it is necessary to embrace the underlying philosophical and psychological principles that gave rise to the movement.  It is also important to understand the historical context through which the Surrealist movement evolved.  

The historical basis for Surrealist art lay in movements such as Cubism and Futurism, both of which ... moved beyond the calm surface of traditional painting to probe the structure of consciousness itself 4.  This basic inward transformation of art resulted in a de-emphasizing of representational art and an awakening of art that viewed the human psyche as its primary target and subject. Due to the fact that so much  of what is important in the Surrealist doctrine, as it were, is based on the liberation of individual consciousness and embracing the subjective psychological experiences  of the artist, quantifying specific principles is often a difficult process. Along with the liberation of the subjective response in art, Surrealist painters embraced what Andre Breton called automatism.  

The idea of automatism held a long history prior to Bretons adoption of it as a principle of Surrealism.  Automatism had, in fact, been a movement in art of its own right.  Closely aligned to the Automatism movement in art was the Dadaist movement, which also embraced automatism.  The belief in the spontaneity of  meaning in the human psyche is a predominant feature of automatism.  s33f0fs24lang1033listtag0par