Surrealism
Founded in 1924 by André Breton as a way of liberating the mind against the constraints of logic and rationalisation, Surrealism spread around Europe and America. The term was first created by Apollinaire in 1917 to describe Parade, a single act opera written by Jean Cocteau, with music by Satie and stage design and costumes by Picasso. The movement evolved, diversified, acquired further meaning and relevance for over 40 years. Tapping into the unconscious, Surrealism encompassed all artistic expressions, from poetry to painting to cinema to music, valuing spontaneity, intuition and emotions, often recurring to a dreamlike dimension, where absurdity and rejection of the status quo were key motivations for the artistic exploration. The group published Littérature curated by Breton, Soupault and Aragon and in 1930 a second Manifest du Surrealism was published, to redefine and clarify the intents of the movements. The rise of Nazism acted as a catalyst for the movement to venture new routes outside Europe. Some of the Surrealist principles and its approach to art itself were instrumental to the development of Abstract Expressionism.