Surrealism as a cultural, literary, and artistic movement emerged in the aftermath of World War I when artists would not only dream of a better world, but they would try to create it. 

Among the major figures of Surrealism were the writers André Breton, Robert Desnos, Paul Éluard, Louis Aragon, and the painters Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst and René Magritte.

André Breton, the Father of Surrealism, described the man as “that inveterate dreamer” and this, according to him, is precisely what makes him a writer.

And indeed, the Surrealists were the real dreamers. They were the curious, the misunderstood ones, the odd ones.

In the movie Midnight in Paris (2011), there is a scene where the screenwriter Gil Pender returns to the 1920s in Paris and comes across the surrealists Salvador Dalí, Luis Buñuel, and Man Ray.

When he tells them that he comes from the future, they are not even surprised. Imagination, time-traveling, and daydreaming are normal practices of Surrealism. When they hear his story, Man Ray sees a photograph, Buñuel is inspired to make a movie and Dalí…sees a rhinoceros. 

If he still retains a certain lucidity, all he can do is turn back toward his childhood which, however, his guides and mentors may have botched it, still strikes him as somehow charming. There, the absence of any known restrictions allows him the perspective of several lives lived at once; this illusion becomes firmly rooted within him; now he is only interested in the fleeting, the extreme facility of everything. Children set off each day without a worry in the world.

– André Breton, The First Manifesto of Surrealism (1924)

Writers need to allow themselves to travel back to their childhood and to bring their dreams to life.

“Beloved imagination, what I most like in you is your unsparing quality.”

– André Breton

The Surrealists considered sleeping as an important part of the creative process. In his Manifesto of Surrealism, Breton tells us the story of Saint-Pol-Roux who used to have a notice posted on the door of his house, every evening before he went to sleep, which read: “THE POET IS WORKING”.

The surrealist artists especially used the early sleep stage, known as the hypnagogic state or N1 which lasts only a few minutes before one drifts off to deeper sleep. Artists like Salvador Dalí would hold an object, such as a spoon while falling asleep. As the artist drifted off in his sleep, the spoon would fall, make a noise and wake him up. This is the moment when he would start his work. 

“The mind of the man who dreams is fully satisfied by what happens to him. The agonizing question of possibility is no longer pertinent. Kill, fly faster, love to your heart’s content. And if you should die, are you not certain of reawakening among the dead? Let yourself be carried along, events will not tolerate your interference. You are nameless. The ease of everything is priceless.”

– André Breton, The First Manifesto of Surrealism

Surrealism was born from Breton’s idea of surreality, the absolute reality between the states of dream and reality as we perceive it. 

Breton wrote his poem “L’Union libre” or “Free Union,” using the practice of automatic writing.
To compare his wife, he would use any word that comes to his mind, without filters. That’s how the following verses were born:

Another important inspiration for the surrealists was the idea of the marvelous, or in Breton’s words: “the marvelous is always beautiful, anything marvelous is beautiful, in fact only the marvelous is beautiful”. 

“The mind which plunges into Surrealism relives with glowing excitement the best part of its childhood. For such a mind, it is similar to the certainty with which a person who is drowning reviews once more, in the space of less than a second, all the insurmountable moments of his life. […]. It is perhaps childhood that comes closest to one’s “real life”; childhood beyond which man has at his disposal, aside from his laissez-passer, only a few complimentary tickets; childhood where everything nevertheless conspires to bring about the effective, risk-free possession of oneself. Thanks to Surrealism, it seems that opportunity knocks a second time.” – André Breton, The First Manifesto of Surrealism

In surrealist art, Magritte’s work defined a split between the visual artistic automatism fostered by Masson and Miro (and originally with Breton’s words) and a new form of illusionistic Surrealism practiced by Salvador Dali, Paul Delvaux and Yves Tanguy.

The Mexican artist Frida Kahlo never officially joined the movement, although she participated in the fourth International Surrealist Exhibition, organized by Breton in 1940.

Frida never truly considered herself to be a Surrealist. “They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality”, she said. Her self-portraits with vibrant colors were inspired by Surrealism and Mexican culture.

“I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best.” – Frida Kahlo

Born in La Casa Azul (The Blue House), in Coyoacán, Mexico, Frida grew up surrounded by women in a traditional Catholic environment. After surviving a bus crash, she lost her ability to walk for a certain time and even after her recovery, the extreme pain haunted her for the rest of her life.

Even though her paintings share lots of common traits with Surrealism, she never really liked “this bunch of cuckoo lunatic sons of bitches of surrealists”. 

“The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.”

– Frida Kahlo

Her last painting is named “Viva la Vida” (“Long Live Life”) and represents a metaphorical depiction of watermelons. A few days before she died, she wrote in her diary: “I hope the exit is joyful – and I hope never to return – Frida.”

“This world is only very relatively in tune with thought, and incidents of this kind are only the most obvious episodes of a war in which I am proud to be participating. Surrealism is the “invisible ray” that will one day enable us to win out over our opponents. This summer the roses are blue; the wood is of glass. The earth, draped in its verdant cloak, makes as little impression upon me as a ghost. It is living and ceasing to live, which are imaginary solutions. Existence is elsewhere.” – André Breton, The First Manifesto of Surrealism, 1924

Last but not least, women had a special place in Surrealism. In his novel Nadja (1928), André Breton describes his obsession with a mysterious woman called Nadja, “so named “because in Russian it’s the beginning of the word hope, and because it’s only the beginning“. Her name might also evoke the Spanish “Nadie,” which means “No one“, proving once again the role of imagination in Surrealist writings. The Surrealist writer, following the steps of the Medieval troubadours, praises the rare, convulsive beauty of the woman.

“Beauty will be convulsive or will not be at all.”

– André Breton, Nadja (1928)