Why Surrealists Turned to Animals to Plumb the Human Psyche

Starfish, scorpions, swallows, and sheep—once you look, animals are everywhere in Surrealist paintings. These and many other creatures are the focus of Desmond Morris’sThe Surrealist Menagerie: Strange Beasts & Fantastic Visions, a new book that combines Morris’s longtime study of zoology (he had a doctorate from Oxford) with his own participation in the Surrealist movement. Morris died this April at the age of 98, and his work leaves us with a lingering question: