Persistence of Memory

Between the horrors of World War I and the misery and death of World War II, writers and artists searched for answers and ways to find some peace of mind. With the introduction of Sigmund Freud's theory of the subconscious, a group of painters hoped that they could find these answers within the genius of their own minds. Perhaps, under the layers of rational thought and visions of the real world in front of them, they could reunite conscious and unconscious realms of experience so completely that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world of existence in "an absolute reality, a surreality." As Freud once noted: "A dream that is not interpreted is like a letter that is not opened." Surrealism offered the opportunity to push the envelop and find the truth. Thus, rose the very nontraditional artistic movement of...
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