During his early life as a painter – 1930 to 1950 – Weiss was influenced by old Dutch masters such as Pieter Breughel, and Hieronymus Bosch. After World War II his painting, as well as his work in film and literature, came under the lasting influence of Surrealism. He taught painting at Stockholm's People's University, and illustrated a Swedish edition of "The Book of One Thousand and One Nights". In 1952 he joined the Swedish Experimental Film Studio, where he directed several experimental short films, followed by several socially conscious documentary shorts: "Gesichter im Schatten" (Faces in the Shadow, 1956), "Im Namen des Gesetzes" (In the Name of the Law, 1957), "Was machen wir jetzt?" (What Do We Do Now?, 1958). In 1959 he directed his only full length (experimental) film "Hägringen" "(The Disappeared"). In the early 1950s, Weiss had begun to write again, producing a number of prose works, some in German, others in Swedish. Most are short, intense, surrealist text which suggest the influence of Kafka (whose work Weiss would later adapt for the stage).