An Introduction to Surrealism

Only one who has viewed it from within can fully comprehend surrealism, but anyone can understand its principles, programs, and methods. As the author emphasizes, in whatever form the movement has expressed itself, it is primarily an attitude of mind. Thus the comments of Surrealist writers on the work of Surrealist painters are often more relevant than the remarks by art critics. And prefaces written by Surrealists for various exhibitions tell us more about the artists as Surrealists then as painters. Too, while literary and pictorial techniques do not provide the only key to the "enchanters' domain" to which Surrealism aspires, technical devices do illuminate ambitions: We see more clearly that the movement is a matter of intention rather than technique. Mr. Matthews has therefore returned to the Surrealists themselves to ask where the movement has come from and where it wishes to go.

Despite the remarkable continuity of Surrealist thought over a period of forty years, the author warns against any attempt to predict future paths. As André Breton, one of the leaders of the movement, remarked in 1962: "You don't assess results when you are still on the move, and whatever conquests have been obtained, there always remains something more to conquer."