The Surrealist art movement began with the goal of accessing the subconscious mind and imagination, conveyed through images, in order to create a new perception of reality. However, many Surrealist painters, although united by their inspiration from the subconscious, often differed in their techniques to portray it effectively. Some artists depicted ordinary objects placed out of context, while some painted dreams, hallucinations, and primal desires. Others, such as Joan Miro and Max Ernst use contrasts between the art and its subject matter in some of their works, which emphasizes, and therefore, effectively conveys and stimulates the subconscious mind. Although Miro’s The Birth of a Nation and Ernst’s Two Children are Threatened by a Nightingale are both examples of imaginative, surrealist paintings, Miro expresses the subconscious mind through the contrast between his abstract style and the use of ordinary objects, while Ernst does so through the contrast between his realistic, crisp style and reference to dreams.