Def: Surrealism is a 20th-century artistic movement that was meant to express the creativity of the unconcsious mind
in 1924 Andre Breton founded the movement in his Manifesto of Surrealism, the movement aimed "To resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality". French poets such as Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire and Lautreamont, were the latter that provided the famous line that summed up Surrealists love of the abstract and weird; “Beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table.”The major artists of the movement were Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, René Magritte and Joan Miró. Surrealism’s impact on popular culture can still be felt today, most visibly in advertising.
It has been said that young Salvador was a precocious and intelligent child, prone to fits of anger against his parents and schoolmates. Consequently, Dalí was subjected to furious acts of cruelty by more dominant students or his father. The elder Salvador wouldn't tolerate his son's outbursts or eccentricities, and punished him severely. Their relationship deteriorated when Salvador was still young, exacerbated by competition between him and his father for Felipa's affection.
Ernst was one of the first artists to apply Sigmund Freud's dream theories investigate his deep psyche in order to explore the source of his own creativity. While turning inwards unto himself, Ernst was also tapping into the universal unconscious with its common dream imagery.