Between the two World Wars, painting lost some of the raw, modern energy
it began the century with and became dominated by two rather philosophical
movements,
Dada and
Surrealism,
which arose partly as a reaction to the senseless atrocities of World War I.
But artists were also becoming introspective, concerned with their own
subconscious dreams: Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytical theories were well
known by this time, and painters explored their own irrationalities
and fantasies in search of a new artistic freedom.
Art of the Fantastic
