Surrealism

The founder of Surrealism, André Breton, saw the artist as a seer in revolt against society. From this comes the idea that the surrealists wanted to change people's way of thinking. Surrealism wanted to liberate the subconscious and unite the subconscious with the conscious. This is usually done by painting in a hyper-realistic style, which depicts strange things emanating from the subconscious, especially dreams. However, the works can also be abstract, such as those of Joan Miró. Some of the techniques used in surrealism are collage, automatism, frottage, and decalcomania. A great influence on this came from the ideas of Freud. Surrealism was an offshoot of dada, who also wanted to blur boundaries.