The surrealism is one of the most influential directions in art of the XX century. The term comes from the French surréalisme that is translated as "superrealism". The surrealism as a current was created in the early twenties of the XX century in France. The brightest feature of this direction is wide use of paradoxical combinations of forms and various hints.
Emergence of surrealism is connected with an exit in 1917 one of plays by the famous French poet and the playwright Guillaume Appoliner which he called "The surrealistic drama". However the French writer André Breton became the true ideologist and the founder of this direction in art. He was the author of the first "Manifesto of the surrealism" published in 1924 in Paris. And five years earlier in collaboration with the poet and publicist Philip Supo A. Breton created the first "automatic" text – the book "Magnetic fields". Founders of surrealism saw its main destination in creation of the special surreality arising at combination of usual daily reality and dreams. Siegmund Freud's works devoted to the theory of psychoanalysis had a great influence on their outlook. Surrealists tried to create the works, using fancy, absurd combinations of naturalistic images. For this purpose various technicians of a collage and ready-made technology were widely applied (English ready the "ready" and English made "made"). According to ideologists of surrealism, art had to become the main instrument of release of the human spirit capable to separate it from material. Therefore as the main values freedom and irrationality were declared. Working generally with such subjects as a sensuality, magic, irony, surrealists tried to create the phantasmagoric forms addressing directly feelings of the viewer bypassing a rational esthetics. Huge attention was paid to various symbols and their combinations. Often, trying to get direct access to subconsciousness depths, surrealists created the works under the influence of alcohol, drugs, hypnosis or hunger. During this period the so-called "automatic letter" – uncontrollable creation of texts enjoyed wide popularity. However the randomness of images nevertheless did not become absolute end in itself but only conscious technology of a statement of essentially new ideas. The main objective surrealists saw need of an exit for a framework of ordinary representations. Having arisen as a literary trend, the surrealism became widespread in painting, music, the photo and in cinema. The whole group of gifted artists, such as S. Dali, P. Picasso, René Magritte or Max Ernst made surrealism one of the most influential directions in painting of the first half of the XX century. From 60th years the surrealism fascinated also world cinema. Jean Cocteau, Luís Buñuel, David Lynch's works became outstanding achievements in this art. Today surrealism as the direction in art it kommertsionalizirovatsya considerably. Modern artists borrowed masters generally outer side of their creations – a fantasmagorichnost of a plot and paradoxicality of forms, having disregarded the deep and psychological aspects and unconscious imaginations which were considered as the main contents in works of the 20-30th years of the last century.