As a new direction in art, surrealism sparked interest in many global painters and artists. The movement relies on other art movements, for example dadaism and expressionism. It seeks to highlight a different concept of reality, unlike the one before. Automatic recording of thoughts, without control of without controlling reason and too much thinking is present in the new movement as one of the primary characteristics. The movement reached Croatian painting pretty late, when all methods of surrealism were well known in France and other European countries. Zidić explains how "Nadrealizam u Hrvatskoj" and "Hrvatski nadrealizam" are two completely different terms that deal with different issues. There is no Croatian surrealism school, as all Croatian traditions opposed of the new movement. This is also one of the reasons why surrealism was later developed in Croatian art. The most significant Croatian surrealistic painter, who was also the founder of movements in Croatia was Miljenko Stančić, a painter, graphic artist and illustrator from Varaždin. He graduated the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and then took a more serious approach to developing his talent. Critics classify his painting as magical realism, fantastical and metaphysical painting, close to symbolism and intimism, but most of all, he is considered a surrealism painter. His works have a touch of excess content, a psychological and symbolic meaning and a symbolic display of reality. His painting can not be sorted chronologically, but we can divide it into cycles depending on the motives he painted. The most common motives were sights and scenery of his hometown, a dead child, lovers and different interiors. He doesn't paint his works according to a model, they come to life from his childhood memories. He stands out from the heap of painters from that time period and because of his individuality and uniqueness, He is considered one of the greatest painters in the history of art. He exhibited his paintings around the whole world, had about forty individual exhibitions and about two hundred and fifty in total, and his works are still exhibited today.