Dada and Surrealist artists questioned long-held assumptions about what a work of art should be about and how it should be made. They boldly selected everyday, manufactured objects at times combining them with other items and called them “art.”

Many Dada and Surrealist artists were critical of the dominant social structures and political strategies that led to World Wars I and II. To critique the systems that shaped society, they turned to new art-making strategies, including collage.

Portraits can represent individuals in many different ways. Rather than seeking to capture a particular person’s physical appearance, Dada and Surrealist artists often sought to represent character, disposition, and the inner psyche.

Landscape was a popular subject for a great number of nineteenth- and early-twentieth century artists, many of whom painted outside, directly from nature. Surrealist artists employed a very different source for their landscapes—the unconscious mind.