Dada artists investigated the conceptual aspect of art by creating anti-art. Artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and Jean Arp placed emphasis on the ideas behind an artwork, rather than its physical attributes. Through a variety of versatile and gutsy experiments, they explored nature, chance, randomness, and humor as integral parts of art making. The artists strove to stress the absurdity of World War I through childlike actions and creations.
Members of the Surrealist movement such as Joan Miro, Max Ernst, and Salvador Dali depicted the relationship between the everyday world and ideas of an alternate reality. Prevalent motifs in their work included dreams, desires, fantasies, and anxieties brought on by their personal struggles or their reactions to war.
Regardless of their approach, Fantasists' searched for alternate ways to portray the unconscious and their relationship to it, a quest resulting in irrational, bizarre, and extraordinary themes.