“ That art is a reflection of society may be difficult to document, but it is undeniable that the Surrealist movement grew out of the ruins of a world shattered by war. Dada, its violent and nihilistic forerunner, manifested the despair and disillusionment felt by so many young artists and intellectuals in the face of the Great War, and it was an international phenomenon that erupted almost simultaneously in Zurich, New York, Berlin, and Paris. These groups shared a moral revulsion against the whole tradition of European civilization that seemed bent solely on its own destruction. The young Dadaists, many of whom later took part in founding surrealism, had profoundly negative outlook towards the future and though Dada was apolitical at the beginning, it was born of the politics of war, and this paradox was revealed by the general character of the movement. Dada, in essence, was revolt against war. None of these artists could bring themselves to work for the rebuilding of a society that had proven itself so morally bankrupt and they rebelled against the accepted values because these had all succumbed to rabid militarism. Illya Ehrenburg, a Soviet novelist living in Paris, rightly insisted that ‘Dadaism has more to do with the battle of the Somme, with uprisings and putsches … than with what we usually consider art.’ ”
The Politics of Surrealism, H.Lewis
