Surrealism

sur·re·al·ism

   [suh-ree-uh-liz-uhm] 

noun ( sometimes initial capital letter )

a style of art and literature developed principally in the 20th century, stressing the subconscious or non rational significance of imagery arrived at by automatism or the exploitation of chance effects, unexpected juxtapositions, etc.

Surrealism was a cultural movement that began in the early 20th century, as an off-shoot of Dadaism, that brought together artists in hunt for expression of the unconscious . Although the term was coined by Guillaume Apollinaire, the driving force behind the movement was Andre Breton, who started the movement with literature. He and two fellow artist began experimenting with automatic writing, where they wrote down whatever they thought without censorship. As more and more writers joined the movement, they developed their philosophy, discarding the conscious production of art art embracing the unconscious for inspiration. 

Breton wrote the Surrealist Manifesto in 1924 defining the groups purpose. He said that Surrealism was 

"Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation." 

The art often has absurb subject matter, and is the visual representation of the subconsious. Many artists created pieces of art inspired by their dreams.

The artist that stands out the most to me from this movement is Salvador Dali, he is someone who I have looked at in the past and always admired his work. Two pieces in particular really caught my eye.

Both images are extremely eye catching and have an amazing dream like quality to them.