An exhibition in Berlin is tracing the similarity between two seemingly different art genres: 'surrealism' and 'new objectivity.' The two styles - both developed before the Second World War - hang alongside each other and reveal similarities in style and themes.

'Surreal Objectivity' does not exist.  Not even in the art world that loves to come up with names to describe painting styles.

But that is still the name of a new exhibition in the German capital of Berlin that shows Surrealist works alongside works from so-called 'New Objectivity' artists.

At first glance the styles are obviously different.

New Objective works, such as Georg Schrimpf's painting of a landscape with power lines, don't seem to have anything in common with Oscar Dominguez surrealist painting of a figure in a pool attached to a safety pin.

The New Objectivity paintings are devoid of emotion, reject expression and focus on realism. The surrealist paintings on the other hand are full of symbolism and reject realism fully.

But the curator of the exhibition says the two styles have much in common, it just takes some digging.

"This exhibition wants to show that what the surrealists did - the way they were able to find the secrets in the objective world - that this was also the same with the New Objectivity works," said Kyllikki Zacharias, curator.

A total of 80 paintings are presented, most of them new objectivity works by German artists such as Otto Dix and Alexander Kanoldt.

But along them hang surrealist works, such as "Portrait of Madame Isabel Styler-Tas" by Salvador Dali.

But some of these paintings do indeed have similarities.

"The artists were put in categories and that is still with it today. You can see that these artists that worked in the 20's and 30's were as comfortable taking something from one category as from another. It wasn't the artists that divided themselves up this way," said Udo Kittelmann, director of nationalgalerie.

The 'Surreal Objectivity' exhibition runs until April 23, 2017.