The course offers a close examination of two of the century’s most
radical art movements: Dada and Surrealism.  Dada, which has its
origins during the First World War, launched an all-out attack on
existing social and cultural institutions through a celebration of
chance, disorder, and madness.  Surrealism, which took shape in
Paris after the war, began as a series of experiments designed to
bring to the surface images and impulses from the artist’s
subconscious; this early period of experiment developed into a
twenty-year effort to liberate art from the confines of established
visual languages.