Surrealism was one of the most interesting and influential at movements of the 20th century. A collective adventure begun by a small group of intellectuals in Paris in the early 1920s, amongst them Max Ernst, Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali, its influence was felt through the rest of continental Europe and in Britain, the Americas, Mexico and Japan. This volume offers insights into the complexities of the surrealist imagination. It documents how the artists met, the relationship of surrealism to dada, and the influences that informed the movement, particularly the work of Sigmund Freud. The position of the women, as surrealist subject-matter as well as artists in their own right, is examined. There is close analysis of individual works, many of them found from the Tate Gallery collection.