Colorado & Regional Art

Surrealism

Surrealism began in France and grew out of the atrocities of World War I. It spread through Europe, then to America, resulting in the 1936 exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism given at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Surrealism portrays real, actual things and scenes, but then distorts, alters or eerily transforms the images, or puts things together in unnatural ways so that scenes become surreal. The surrealists felt that what appears to be real isn’t; how people portray themselves is often not representative of their true nature; reality lies in our subconscious. Surrealist images are therefore like dreams or frequently like nightmares, or sometimes whimsical and humorous.