noun
- an artistic and literary movement that seeks to express the unconscious mind through fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtaposition of subject matter
Usage: art history; literature
Examples
- Salvador Dalí was a famous painter associated with surrealism.
- The museum’s surrealism exhibit featured works by René Magritte and Max Ernst.
- Her poetry showed the influence of surrealism with its dreamlike imagery.
- Surrealism emerged in Europe in the 1920s as a reaction against rational thought.
- The film’s bizarre plot and imagery were clearly inspired by surrealism.
- Students studied surrealism as part of their modern art history course.