Surrealism Theory

Manifesto of Surrealism

The movement officially began in 1924 with the publication of the first Manifesto of Surrealism, penned by poet and writer André Breton, who became the movement’s titular leader until his death in 1966.

Influenced by Sigmund Freud’s theory of the unconscious, the manifesto defined Surrealism as “psychic automatism”, a process that encouraged a freeing of the mind from rational and utilitarian values and constraints as well as moral and aesthetic judgement.

Throughout the 1930s Surrealism became an incredibly diverse international movement, and included the dissident Surrealist faction grouped around George Bataille.

Revolution of the mind

Breton conceived of Surrealism as a revolution of the mind that would fundamentally transform everyday experience. Surrealism was less interested in the irrational for its own sake, than in reconciling the contradictory states of dream and reality into a more potent form of reality – a kind of surrealist consciousness.

The emergence of psychoanalysis and Freud’s theories of the mind offered Surrealism a way to move beyond an empirical, surface apprehension of the world. While Freud was interested in how everyday life informs dreams, the Surrealists experimented with the ways in which our dream world informs everyday experience, including creative practice.

The Surrealists’ exploration of dreams, sexuality and desire through involuntary actions and processes, such as spontaneous or automatic writing and drawing, redirected the significance of the unconscious away from its traditional therapeutic function.