The Surrealism movement was active from the 1920s until the late 1940s when it began to decline. In its early years, Surrealism was closely linked to Dadaism, an earlier avant-garde movement that emerged during World War I. However, Surrealism distinguished itself from Dadaism by emphasizing the importance of the unconscious mind and dreams in artistic creation.
Surrealists sought to create works of art that expressed the irrational, subconscious, and dreamlike aspects of human experience. They experimented with automatic writing, collage, and other techniques that would allow them to bypass conscious control and tap into the unconscious. Surrealist art and literature often featured strange, illogical juxtapositions of images and objects and explored themes such as sexuality, violence, and the absurd.
Surrealism had a significant impact on the development of modern and contemporary art. It influenced numerous other artistic movements, such as Abstract Expressionism, and had a profound effect on the development of modern literature, film, and photography.