Q 01/05

Who coined the word 'surrealism' in 1917?

A) André Breton

B) Guillaume Apollinaire

C) Tristan Tzara

D) Jean Cocteau

Answer · why

B) Guillaume Apollinaire

He used it in his programme notes for the Ballets Russes production Parade, with music by Erik Satie.

Q 02/05

Which earlier movement, born of disgust at World War I, most directly influenced Surrealism?

A) Cubism

B) Futurism

C) Impressionism

D) Dada

Answer · why

D) Dada

Many future Surrealists took part in Dada's anti-art gatherings in Paris after the war.

Q 03/05

Who wrote the Surrealist Manifesto of October 1924 and led the movement for four decades?

A) Louis Aragon

B) Paul Éluard

C) André Breton

D) Philippe Soupault

Answer · why

C) André Breton

A rival, Yvan Goll, had published his own surrealist manifesto two weeks earlier but lost the battle for the name.

Q 04/05

Breton's 1924 manifesto defined surrealism as pure what?

A) Dream painting

B) Political revolt

C) Poetic collage

D) Psychic automatism

Answer · why

D) Psychic automatism

The aim was to express 'the actual functioning of thought' free of reason's control.

Q 05/05

Before founding Surrealism, the movement's leader had trained in what field?

A) Law and philosophy

B) Medicine and psychiatry

C) Architecture

D) Catholic theology

Answer · why

B) Medicine and psychiatry

He used Freud's methods on shell-shocked soldiers in a wartime neurological hospital.