Description

Spiral-bound exercise book with 33 original photo-collages, some of which are dated 1931. Notebook of original collages [circa 1931]. Spiral-bound exercise book (27x21 cm) with 33 original photo-collages, mostly from black and white or sepia photographic reproductions (4 photo-collages are in colour) cut from magazines. Two of these photo-collages are reproduced in the sixth number of the magazine Le Surréalisme au service de la Révolution (May 15, 1933), pages 59 and 60: - Photo-collage No.20 (black and white) in the present exercise book is reproduced on page 59 of issue No.6 of the magazine, captioned: "S.M. (Suzanne Muzard) Sous la verrière de Grenelle" [Under the glass roof of Grenelle]. - The photo-collage No.21 (black and white) in this exercise book is reproduced at the bottom of page 60 of the same issue of the magazine captioned: "Paul Éluard - Les Martiniquaises étaient descendues de leur estrade" [The Martinique women came down from their platform]. This same photo-collage is also reproduced in the Dictionnaire abrégé du Surréalisme (Galerie des Beaux-Arts, 1938) page 37, dated 1931. In addition to the participation of Paul Éluard and Suzanne Muzard, that of André Breton - the holder of the notebook - is evident. [Auction Catalogue, 2003]

Bibliography

- Suzanne Muzard, « Sous la verrière de Grenelle », Le Surréalisme au service de la Révolution, n°6, 15 mai 1933, rep. p. 59
- Paul Éluard, « Les Martiniquaises étaient descendues de leur estrade », Le Surréalisme au service de la Révolution, n°6, 15 mai 1933, rep. p. 60
- Paul Éluard, « Les Martiniquaises étaient descendues de leur estrade », Dictionnaire abrégé du Surréalisme, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1938, rep. p. 37

 

Creation date	circa 1931
Physical description	collages - images découpées, Ds, revues
Museum	Musée national d'Art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris : Inv. AM 2015-330
Size	27,00 x 21,00 cm
Reference	278000
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2166
Keywords	Graphic Arts, Assemblage or collage, Photography
Categories	1931-1939, Graphics, Objects by André Breton
Set	[Albums] Scrapbooks, [Albums] Miscellaneous photos from albums
Permanent link	https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100248950

See also

Description

"When it came to pass that Breton "took up collage", he turned to purely photographic material for some of them, as for example in Le Puits enchanté (1931) reproduced in 1938 in Le Dictionnaire abrégé du surréalisme; or for Le Serpent (also entitled L'Oeuf de l'Eglise), from 1932, where the humorous high-jacking of priestly ornament pleasantly contributes the celebration of the "eternal feminine".
It is noteworthy that each of these photo-collages, all roughly contemporary, emits quite a different tone. Thus with Le Puits enchanté, there is no doubt that this is the Breton of that great amorous mystery, the creator of L'Union libre, who is present in the person of the collagist. The other two images are more a reminder of the subversive polemicist that he took an equal pleasure in being: the worker blocking the desert road to a cop in Un temps de chien, certainly owes something to the climate of all those years when Surrealism wanted above all to be "of service to the revolution". It would make a very striking illustration for a poem by the Péret of Je ne mange pas de ce pain là, or by Jacques Prévert." Edouard Jaguer (Les mystères de la chambre noire, le surréalisme et la photographie, Paris, Flammarion, 1982, p. 55).

Bibliography

- Le surréalisme au service de la révolution, n° 6, 15 mai, 1933, repr. p. 59.
- Edouard Jaguer, Les mystères de la chambre noire, le surréalisme et la photographie, Paris, Flammarion, 1982, rep.p.55
- Terzoocchio, n° 30, mars 1984, rep.s.p.
- Herta Wescher, Die Collage, Koln, DuMont Schauberg, 1968, cit. p. 207
- L'Orne littéraire, n° 10, 1987, rep.p.35
- André Breton, Octavio Paz (préface de), Je vois, j'imagine, poèmes-objets (Catalogue établi par Jean-Michel Goutier), Paris, Gallimard, 1991, rep.p.69, n° 40, p. 175
- Paris, Musée national d'art moderne/Centre Georges Pompidou, André Breton, la beauté convulsive, 1991, rep.p.289

Creation date	c 1931
Physical description	19,1 x 25,4 cm (7 1/2 x 10 in.) le support 15 x 23 cm (5 7/8 x 9 in.) le collage - Collage, sd
Copyright	© ADAGP, Paris, 2005.
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 4018
Keywords	Assemblage or collage, Photography
Categories	1931-1939, Graphics, Objects by André Breton
Set	[Exhibitions] 1991, boîte archives bleue, Beaubourg
Permanent link	https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100102560

See also