The rise of Surrealism during these years was profoundly linked to this atmosphere of disruption and upheaval. Surrealist art not only became a focus on the realms of dream, myth, and unconscious, but was also rooted in the turbulent social, political, and intellectual climate of the era.

The Surrealist movement began in Paris shortly after World War I, fueled by the explosion that was dada. Dada ignited in Zurich in 1916 and fizzled out in Paris seven years later. In the first Surrealist Manifesto the young poet and spokesman of the group, Andre Breton, wrote:

This was a call to search for hidden sources of inspiration in the dream, the unconscious, and myth, but to pursue these sources with a sense of purpose and a quasi-scientific mode of investigation that would allow the vagaries and anomalies of the imagination to influence and be correlated with real events, objects, and people. Surrealism sought inspiration in ancient myths, "irrational" modes of thought, and "primitive" cultures, while embracing the concept of modernity and twentieth-century culture. The surrealists embarked upon a quest for the "marvelous," which could appear anywhere in any form, and could be reached through a kind of "tuning" of the mind; the "marvelous" was like an illumination of the consciousness that could transform perception to such an extent that even the most mundane objects would yield strange and beautiful characteristics. Surrealism was essentially anti-intellectual, and stressed the need to formulate a new means of vital communication; an important aspect of the movement was its sense of action, with surrealists wandering through the streets of Paris, participating in collective experiments, playing games, organizing surrealist events, and producing periodicals and manifestos that reflect the continuing shifts in emphasis throughout the life of the movement.

There were several important sources of inspiration for the surrealists, including ethnology and psychology. Breton had studied medicine and was posted to a psychiatric hospital during the war where he treated shell-shocked soldiers. The surrealists adopted Freud's theory of the unconscious; the significance of dream symbolism, puns, and jokes; and the central importance of sexuality. However, they rejected any notion of a psychological "norm"; in the wake of the war, they saw western civilization as hypocritical, barbaric, and inhumane, and so adopted a radical political stance. Dadaism was predominantly anarchistic, whereas surrealism gravitated towards an unorthodox Marxist stance, which was eventually abandoned due to the reactionary nature of the Communist Party.  (Surrealism & the Occult, by Nadia Choucha)

Several artists associated with Surrealism are Miro, Dali, Arp, Giacometti, Tanguy, Ubac, Ernst, Toyen, and Magritte.