ABSTRACT
The majority of artists, and those who become most popular, express the feelings and ideas which belong to the recent past or the immediate present. The ordinary man recognises himself in their works, and likes it. But the artists who shape the world to come are those who see a bit further than other people, who point out new ways, and force their message across, to some extent at any rate, on to a lazy and unwilling public. The surrealists claimed that by showing that art was merely a question of getting into an unmatter-of-fact frame of mind, they had made it possible for everyone to be an artist. Everyone can dream and have irrational notions. When critics told them that they were merely playing with nonsense, they replied that the critics were being spiteful because the basis of professional criticism had been destroyed.
