This delightful collection allows everyone to enjoy firsthand the provocative methods used by the artists and poets of the Surrealist school to break through conventional thought and behavior to a deeper truth. Invented and played by such artists as André Breton, Rene Magritte, and Max Ernst, these gems still produce results ranging from the hilarious to the mysterious and profound.

The first Surrealist manifesto was written by the French writer André Breton and released to the public in 1924. The text includes numerous examples of the applications of Surrealism to poetry and literature, but makes it clear that its basic tenets can be applied to any circumstance of life; not merely restricted to the artistic realm. Signers of the manifesto included Louis Aragon, Antonin Artaud, Jacques Baron, Joe Bousquet, Jacques-André Boiffard, Jean Carrive, Rene Crevel, Robert Desnos, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, and Breton.

Filled with a wide array of illustrations, this book offers a fresh perspective on surrealism as it spotlights the important role that North American women artists played in the movement. The surrealist movement in art is most often identified with male artists, many of whom objectified women in their paintings, casting them as sexual or symbolic ideals. Conversely, the female artists of the movement delved primarily into their own subconscious and dreams. This volume features the work of
48 Mexican and U.S.-based women artists whose contributions to the surrealist movement span more than four decades and whose work was both influential and radical in its own right. Thematically arranged, it includes more than 250 full-color images along with several essays exploring the effects of
geography and gender on the movement. This unique book illustrates surrealism as a gateway to self-discovery, especially in North America, where women artists were freed from oppressive European traditions and the vagaries of war. From 1931, the year of Lee Miller's first surreal photograph, to 1968,
when Yayoi Kusama presented her landmark happening "Alice in Wonderland" in New York's Central Park, the artists and works depicted here are both significant and extraordinary in their explorations of personal and universal truths.