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These wastelands

Manuscript

Author

Author André Breton

Description

Handwritten text by André Breton about his undated homonymous poem-object.

Collages, dream-objects and poems-objects: surrealism constantly aimed at abolishing the borders between the arts, consequently imagining new ‘creative’ techniques. The poet’s collage in which he utilises hiss own techniques to turn a visual object into a poem corresponds to the frottages, cut-outs and other collage means discovered by the painters. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

Hand-written manuscript, sd [December 1941].
- These wastelands..., 1/2 page in-4 texts with titles handwritten in blue ink by Breton with some erasures and corrections of this text relating to the object poem:
‘These wastelands
‘where I wander
‘defeated by the shadow
‘and the moon
‘attached to the house of my heart.'
‘The object-poem is a composition that extends to combine the resources of the poetic and visual arts as it speculates on their power of mutual exaltation.’ For a Collage. [sale catalogue, 2003]

André Breton gave, the poem-object These Wastelands to Kay Sage in December 1941. She later entrusted it to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where it is held under inventory number 197.1963. [André Breton website, 2014]


*This entry was translated from the French by Michael Richardson.

 

Bibliography

- André Breton (Édition publiée sous la direction d'Étienne-Alain Hubert avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier et Marie-Claire Dumas), [Sur le poème-objet « Ces Terrains vagues »], Textes retrouvés, 1938-1948, Œuvres complètes, tome IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, pages 1188-1189.

 

Ces terrains vagues, MOMA

Creation datesd [1941]
Date of publication 2008
LanguagesFrench
Physical descriptionMs - encre bleue
Library

Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris : BRT 78

Breton Auction, 2003Lot 2236
Keywords, , , , , , ,
CategoriesManuscripts, Andre Breton's Manuscripts
Set[AB's Manuscripts] Miscellaneous Manuscripts, [AB's Manuscripts] Poems-objects
Permanent linkhttps://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100040890