Surrealist painters like Magritte significantly impacted modern art.
The surrealist movement as a philosophy arose out of the tumultuous changes experienced by Europe as it recovered from the destruction of World War I in the 1920s. Surrealists used unexpected pairings and non-sequitors to express philosophical ideas and heavily incorporated Freudian ideas of the subconscious into their work. Surrealism influenced artists and thinkers in many media, including painting, film, literature and music.
Painting
Surrealists painters are among the most important artists of the 20th century, influencing many later artists and later movements such as Abstract Expressionism and conceptual art. Perhaps the most famous surrealist painter is Salvadore Dali, whose dream-influenced paintings contained many juxtaposed and unexpected items like melting clocks and giant floating roses. Renee Magritte's "The Treachery of Images" contains a painting of a pipe as well as a sentence in French stating "this is not a pipe," encouraging the viewer to realize the difference between images and reality.
Film
Surrealists also found a medium for expression in the growing field of film. Many film critics consider Luis Bunuel, who collaborated with Salvadore Dali while creating many surrealist classics, to be one of the most influential directors of all time. His films, which include "Un Chien Andalou" and "L'Age d'Or," combined sometimes extremely disturbing images with social critiques. Other directors that experimented with surrealism in their films include Man Ray and Germaine Dulac.
Theater
Surrealists such as Antonin Artaud and Federico Lorca branched into combining surrealist ideas with theater. Artaud theorized a new form of performance called the theater of cruelty, in which emotions and ideas are expressed physically rather than through language. Many of Federico's plays, such as "When Five Years Pass" and "The Public," exhibit surrealist elements in their manifestation of the characters' subconscious thoughts.
Music
Many avant-garde composers of the early 20th century experimented with surrealist ideas in their work. These composers, such as Erik Satie, who wrote music for surrealist films, and George Antheil, who often collaborated with surrealists such as Man Ray, incorporated the surrealist idea of combining unexpected juxtapositions into their music. Contemporary musicians have also drawn influence from surrealists, such as the Pixies, who consciously incorporated surrealist ideas into their music; in particular, songs such as "Debaser" explicitly reference surrealist works.
