Walter Quirt studied art at the Layton School of Art in Wisconsin from 1921 until 1923 and later at the McDowell Colony in New Hampshire in 1928. He was one of the most vital and active figures of the New York avant-garde art world of the 1930s. He worked for the Works Project Administration painting murals in the mid-1930s.He later moved to Minneapolis and taught art at the University of Minnesota from 1956 to 1968. Early in his career, Quirt painted the social problems of his time in a realistic style. He also involved himself in left-wing causes by illustrating political magazines, such as The Masses, and by joining radical artist groups. Quirt was a member of the John Reed Club.After working with socialist themes for many years, Quirt became one of the first American artists to experiment with Surrealism. He had a retrospective exhibition of his work in 1960 through the American Federation of Arts, and he showed during his career at the Art Institute of Chicago, Whitney Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, and the Detroit Institute of Arts.Quirt died March 19, 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Developed in Europe, the movement known as Surrealism included artists who painted the fleeting images and moments of their subconscious activity and dreams. By the time the Museum of Modern Art held their landmark 1936 exhibition on Surrealism, Walter Quirt was already defining his approach to Surrealism that had been displayed first as early as 1933. Quirt’s attitude was that Salvador Dali and others had not taken full advantage of the possibilities that Surrealism offered, and that artists using free association to explore the language of emotions on problems the public feels but has not the means for projecting into actualities was a positive move.