第一次和第二世界大战之间兴起於欧洲的视觉艺术与文学运动，因反对导致第一次世界大战的「理性主义」而发展起来。诗人和批评家布列东（A. Breton）於1924年首创「超现实主义」一词，主张将梦和幻想同日常生活的现实结合起来，作为一种中介来形成「一种绝对的现实、一种超现实」。布列东借用了弗洛伊德的理论，把无意识视作想像力的源泉。布列东本人是位诗人，但超现实主义的成就主要是在绘画领域。超现实主义绘画流派众多，受到各方面的影响，诸如达达主义、博斯（H. Bosch）、雷东（O. Redon）、希里科（G. de Chirico）等。超现实主义画家们在实践中有的推崇器官的、象徵的或绝对的超现实主义，通过含有某种暗示却又很不确定的生物形象来表达无意识冲动，诸如阿尔普（J. Arp）、恩斯特（M. Ernst）、马松（A. Masson）和米罗（J. Miro）等。其他人则选择了另一种方式，将较为真实的形象置於一种好像完全不相关的背景中，构成一种荒诞的乃至惊世骇俗的组合，例如达利（S. Dali）和马格里特（R. Magritte）等。
English version：
Surrealism
Movement in the visual arts and literature that flourished in Europe between World Wars I and II. It developed in reaction against the “rationalism” that had led to World War I. The movement was founded in 1924 by Andre Breton as a means of joining dream and fantasy to everyday reality to form “an absolute reality, a surreality.” Drawing on the theories of Sigmund Freud, he concluded that the unconscious was the wellspring of the imagination. Breton was a poet, but Surrealism's major achievements were in painting. Surrealist painting is diverse, influenced by Dada, Hieronymus Bosch, Odilon Redon, and Giorgio de Chirico. Some artists practiced organic, emblematic, or absolute Surrealism, expressing the unconscious through suggestive yet indefinite biomorphic images (Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Andre Masson, Joan Miro). Others created realistically painted images, removed from their context and reassembled within a paradoxical or shocking framework (Salvador Dalí, Rene Magritte).