Description

Handwritten text by André Breton, dated 1939, and published in the May 1939 issue of the magazine Minotaure. This initial assessment, drawn up in 1939, was written on-the-spot - or perhaps we should say on the edge. Breton made it the occasion for a definitive break with Dalí, who had been won over by both the laws of the market and Franco's ideology. The paranoiac-critical method is at the same time dismissed as crossword-style entertainment... Reprinted in 1965 in the definitive edition of Le Surréalisme et la peinture, the text reveals the virtues of experiments in absolute automatism such as are found in Paalen, Brauner and especially Matta. Published twenty-five years later, the text takes on a prophetic value, so much so that the discoveries it announces will prove to be true to their promises. [Atelier André Breton website, 2003] Signed autograph manuscript, 1939. - 2 pages in-4° folio, manuscript titled and signed in ink by André Breton relating to the findings of current surrealist painters "fifteen years after the Manifesto of Surrealism", such as Oscar Dominguez's "decalcomania without objects" and Paalen's fumage (the technique of making marks on paper with candle smoke), or of more recent painters such as Esteban Frances, Matta, and the growing importance of Tanguy. "Already a truly acute monotony is lurking in Dali's painting. If, on the other hand, Tanguy's star rises ever higher, it is because he is perfectly honest and unsullied, because he escapes by his nature any kind of compromise, Tanguy's painting has yet to convey its charm: it will deliver its secret later. This secret is no less well kept than that of the early de Chirico [...]." (Slightly damaged paper) The new edition of Le Surréalisme et la peinture, Gallimard, 1965. [Auction Catalogue, 2003]

Bibliography

- André Breton, « Des tendances les plus récentes de la peinture surréaliste », Minotaure, n° 12-13, mai 1939, p. 16-17.
- André Breton, « Des tendances les plus récentes de la peinture surréaliste », Le Surréalisme et la Peinture, Paris, Gallimard, 1965.
- André Breton (Édition publiée sous la direction d'Étienne-Alain Hubert avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier et Marie-Claire Dumas), « Des tendances les plus récentes de la peinture surréaliste », Le Surréalisme et la Peinture, Œuvres complètes, tome IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, p. 524-531, notice et notes p. 1299-1302.

 

Creation date	mai 1939
Bibliographical material	2 pages in-4°
Date of publication	1939
Languages	French
Physical description	Ms - encre verte et crayons noir et rouge
Number of pages	2
Reference	679000
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2223
Keywords	Work notes, Painting, Reviews and Journals, Surrealism
Categories	Andre Breton's Manuscripts
Set	[Breton's Manuscripts and Drawings] dossier Le Surréalisme et la peinture
Exhibition	Exposition Victor Brauner
Permanent link	https://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100162970