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Description

Cardboard folder compiled by André Breton in preparation for the exhibition Le Surréalisme en 1947.

The highlight of the International Surrealist Exhibition held at the Maeght Gallery in July 1947 was the twelve altars "devoted to a being, a category of beings, or an object likely to be endowed with mythical life". The sheets collected here by Breton allow us to better understand the collective dimension of this work, in which the artists and poets of the group collaborated. Thus, the altar to Léonie Aubois d'Ashby, placed under the sign of Rimbaud, was made by Breton with the help of Francis Bouvet, Michel Hertz, and Claude Tarnaud, with offerings from Claude Tarnaud (an object-painting), Jacques Hérold (a tie!), Victor Brauner (a root), and delicacies provided by Benjamin Péret and Francis Bouvet. Each sheet also mentions a network of correspondences, particularly astrological ones. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005] 

André Breton's cardboard folder​
- “Altars", 12 in-12 pages in ink by Breton about altars made by Delanglade, Lam, Serpan, Heisler, Breton, Brauner, Matta, Seigle, Herold and Toyen for the 1947 exhibition. Each altar has an extract from a text. Breton has copied in ink the twelve texts chosen as well as the names of the artists who made the altars.
- 1) The Society Tiger (Jean Ferry) 
- 2) The hair of Falmer (Lautréamont) 
- 3) The suspicious Heloderma on the barrel cactus 
- 4) Jeanne Sabrenas (Alfred Jarry)
- 5) Leonie Aubois d'Ashby (Arthur Rimbaud)
- 6) The Secretary Bird 
- 7) The Juggler of Gravity
- 8) The Star-Nosed Mole (La Faille, cited by Buffon)
- 9) The Wolf-Table
- 10) Raymond Roussel
- 11) The Great Invisibles (André Breton)
- 12) The Window of Magna Sed Apta (George du Maurier)
The thirteenth altar, by Baskine, announced in the catalogue is not included here. [Sale Catalogue, 2003].

 

Creation date1947
Bibliographical material

12 pages in-12

LanguagesFrench
Library

Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Centre Pompidou, Paris : BRET 1.11-23

Number of pages12 p.
Reference1334000
Breton Auction, 2003Lot 2282
Keywords, , ,
CategoriesArchives, Andre Breton's Manuscripts
Set[Exhibitions] 1947, Exposition Maeght 1947
Exhibition1947, Le Surréalisme en 1947
Permanent linkhttps://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100071620
Exhibition place