| The Surrealists looked to the art of children, the | | | | of the city rather than the silence of nature |
| art of the insane and primitive art for inspiration in | | | | became the backdrop of modern life. The endless |
| preference to art produced in a careful and | | | | reproduction of photos, prints and films destroyed |
| labored way. The untrained and self-taught artists | | | | the uniqueness of images and created increased |
| were prized. The two major types of Surrealism | | | | competition for art of all types. |
| that emerged over time were abstract and | | | | One of the foremost masters of veristic |
| veristic. Abstract Surrealism, exemplified by Joan | | | | surrealism was Salvador Dali (b. 1904). Dali's quest |
| Miro (1893-1983) and André Masson, | | | | to depict a superior reality included the use of |
| utilized organic scribbles and curvilinear images with | | | | traditional subjects such as figures and landscapes. |
| biomorphic qualities. Miro's work, such as The | | | | However, he created a disruption of normality |
| Farm (1921-22) was particularly marked by | | | | through exaggeration and the juxtaposition of |
| vitality, high color, flat patterns and animal forms. | | | | disparate images. Expanses of cloudless skies and |
| Veristic Surrealism, on the other hand, achieved | | | | peculiar transformations of familiar objects were |
| an other-worldliness through a highly refined | | | | hallmarks of Dali's work. The eerie painting The |
| technique. | | | | Persistence of Memory (1931) is one of Dali's the |
| Another factor which separated the art of the | | | | best-known pieces exemplifying this approach. |
| second half of this century from that of the | | | | This shift from pure representational art to a |
| Renaissance painters and 19th century realists | | | | quest to express feelings continues to be a |
| was the modern profusion of visual stimulation | | | | fundamental difference between the traditional art |
| and information conveyed via the mass media as | | | | of realism and the concerns of modernism. |
| well as the mass production of goods. The noise | | | | |