Background Of Surrealism In Dada

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What is Surrealism as we know it today? The true definition for Surrealism is: a movement in art and literature that formulated in Paris in the 1920s, which developed out of dada, characterized by the evocative juxtaposition of incongruous images in order to include unconscious and dream elements. The goal of this such movement was to allow artist to paint without boundaries. Surrealism allowed artist to use their imagination to paint whatever came to mind, most surrealist paintings included unrealistic creatures and many elements of surprise. It is said that surrealism has become the most influential movement of the 20th century. To further understand this idea we can look into the background of Surrealism which is Dada.
In 1914 World War I broke out in the Balkan Peninsula, and every major power in Europe were drawn in to fight. This war is said to be one of the top 10 bloodiest wars in U.S. history. After two years had gone by, in 1916, a group of artists who were staying in a neutral area, Zurich, Switzerland, decided to get together as a protest group for an art movement, or non-movement, they called Dada. These artists were: Hans Arp, Johannes Baader, Johannes Theodor Baargeld, Erwin Blumenfeld, Jean Crotti, Katherine Sophie Drier, Marcel Duchamp, Viking Eggeling, Max Ernst, Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, Jefim Golyscheff, George Grosz, Raoul Hausmann, John Heartfield, Hanna Höch, Richard Huelsenbeck, Marcel Janco, Man Ray, Francis Picabia, Enrico Prampolino, Hans Richter, Christian Schad, Morton Livingston Schamberg, Kurt Schwitters, Alfred Stieglitz, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Jan Tschichold, Theo van Doesburg, Adya van Rees, Otto van Rees, and Beatrice Wood. This movement did not just protest one thing, it protested eve...

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... Surrealism, as a visual movement, had found a method to expose psychological truth by stripping ordinary objects of their normal significance, to create a overpowering image that was beyond ordinary formal organization, in order to bring about an understanding from the viewer. In 1931 several Surrealist painters produced magnificent works that marked a turning point in the evolution of their style. Late in the 1960s riots broke out in Paris, protestors used quotes from Surrealist texts as their slogans or their rally cries. Many attitudes thats the Surrealists had expressed and many causes they had made their own were taken up by these protestors. In 1969 the actual “Surrealist group” had completely broken apart.
Surrealism as a “way of life”, the ideas, styles, and attitudes that it had expressed has continued and will continue to live on for many years to come.

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