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Life histories of the Surrealists, known and unknown, by one of the last surviving members of the movement -- artist and best-selling author Desmond MorrisSurrealism did not begin as an art movement but as a philosophical strategy, a way of life, and a rebellion against the establishment that gave rise to the First World War. In Lives of the Surrealists, Desmond Morris concentrates on the artists as people -- as remarkable individuals. What were their personalities, their predilections, their character strengths and flaws?Unlike the Impressionists or the Cubists, the surrealists did not obey a fixed visual code, but rather the rules of surrealist philosophy: work from the unconscious, letting your darkest, most irrational thoughts well up and shape your art.