In 1938, the London Underground launched its new poster, “KEEPS LONDON GOING”, by surrealist artist Man Ray. It was a black and white Rayograph depicting two objects seemingly on a collision course, the tube’s roundel-and-bar logo tilted in motion facing its inspiration, the planet Saturn. This chance meeting in outer space had all the dream logic that was central to surrealism, a word coined in 1917 by writer Guillaume Apollinaire to describe a new kind of art concerned with the unconscious mind, dreams and repressed sexual desires. It was heavily influenced by Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), particularly with regards to his theories about the symbolism of objects.
Through understanding dreams, the surrealists believed there was enormous potential to unbottle creative forces repressed by rational, orthodox codes of ‘civilised’ behaviour imposed by religion
