#anolouge

Maurice Tabard was on the leading early surrealist photographers work with photo-montages, double exposures and combination printing to create distorted images that had been taken out of their original context and given an entirely new role. The surrealist movement stemmed from the DADA movement and was founded in Paris in 1924. While surrealism undoubtedly had a large influence on art both at the time and today it was in fact a cultural movement. Whilst influencing art, literature and music the movement also influenced the political stance of those who were involved in it – meaning many of the leading figures in surrealism where socialist who believed in themes such as communism and anarchism.  The movement had its roots in physiological theories, especially those of Sigmund Freud who believed that our dreams held the key to unlock or unconscious mind. He published a book entitled ‘the interpretation of dreams’ and was the leading psychologist in terms of dream analysis and free association. Those involved in the surrealist movement then took this idea and expressed their own dreams and unconsciousness through visual arts and writing. Breton described the movement to be an ‘expression of the ‘real’ functioning though without the control and restriction of reasoning.’ The movement advocated the idea that the ordinary expressions and dreams people had are vital in understanding or consciousness and resolved the previously contradictory conditions of the dream and reality.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/phsr/hd_phsr.htm