SURREALISM

The character of Surrealism had been crystallizing over the previous five years when, in 1924, André Breton issued the first Surrealist Manifesto. As conceived in those early days, Surrealism was not so much a formal movement as a spiritual orientation, embracing ethics and politics as well as the arts. Recourse to dreams, to the unconscious, to chance factors, to automatism dictated the Surrealist mode, and the long list of artists associated with the movement includes Ernst, Miro, Duchamp, Magritte and Dali. Patrick Waldberg incorporates a collection of key documents in his invaluable survey of Surrealism from its beginnings to the present time.