Dada and Surrealism were two revolutionary art movements which emerged in response to the events and ideas of the early twentieth century. Dada, characterized by found objects and works made according to the laws of chance, was anarchic and anti-art. In part a reaction to the senseless destruction of World War I, it questioned all accepted values. Surrealism, in contrast, was a more defined movement which evolved in the 1920s as artists and writers took up Freud's concept of the unconscious to undermine traditional conventions. By use of such techniques as automatism, artists sought to represent in concrete terms the imagery of dream and fantasy.
In this clear and lively account, Matthew Gale explores the work of a wide range of artists - from Marcel Duchamp and Raoul Hausmann to Max Ernst, René Magritte and Salvador Dali - and uses paintings, collages, sculptures, assemblages, photographs, photomontages, film stills and graphics to illustrate the rich variety of Dada and Surrealist art. This essential introductory book is the first to reproduce many of these works in colour.