The European Avant-garde

This passage questions the definition of surrealism. When first introduced as a type of art in the early 1900's, surrealism was based off of theories from Sigmund Freud, a psychoanalysis. Freud put great emphasis on the relevance of dreams and unconscious desires to the human mind. He believed that peoples internal urges hinted at their true needs and provided an explanation for different behaviors. The art world followed in this path due to the unconscious decisions that are made in creating art and the contribution that one's minds eye makes to work rather than it simply being fully intentional. Man Ray explained that "he painted that which cannot be photographed and photographed that which cannot be painted." I think this idea emphasizes the difference between and the uniqueness of each medium and that there is a specific time in which an artist will need to use both techniques, but they can be used together in order to fully grasp concepts of the world and convey meaning in them through art. Surrealism can be defined by Andre Breton as "a desire to deepen the foundation of the real; to bring about an ever clearer and at the same time ever more passionate consciousness of the world perceived by the sense." This quote illustrates the idea that surrealism allowed the artist to show their deeper experiences of the world and allow more freedom for manipulating photographs as well as facading their meaning.