The 1930s are characterised by several Modernistic formal experiments: Expressionist, Surrealist, Lyrical Realist, Abstract and Constructivist works are the order of the day. Art moves away from stylised, though still figurative subjects, via a variety of expressive forms, in which the subject is partially recognisable, to largely abstract works, where a formal idiom dominates. Whereas Wilhelm Freddie's Surrealist works attempt to access the depths of our souls and the things we do not acknowledge, Niels Lergaard's Lyrical Realism concentrates on situations from the familiar, local environment. Painting becomes an intellectual process, in which the aim is to combine "what we perceive, what we feel and what we think."