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The Grand Ceremonial restored to us at last by Jean Benoît

Manuscript

Author

Author André Breton
People cited Jean Benoît, Maurice Blanchot, Petrus Borel, Pierre Klossowski, Man Ray, Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, Swinburne, Guillaume Apollinaire, Georges Bataille, Maurice Heine, Gilbert Lély, Jean Paulhan

Description

Signed manuscript by André Breton dating from 1959.

This isolated fragment is part of a text recounting the performance, in the presence of a few friends, who included the writer Annie Le Brun and the photographer Gilles Ehrmann, of the funeral rites that had been wished for by the Marquis de Sade but never performed until then. The ‘Grand Ceremonial’ finally took place on 2 December 1959, on the initiative of the Canadian artist Jean Benoît. That same evening, Matta was reinstated as a member of the group. Enthusiastic about the event, Breton wrote a text that prefaced the EROS exhibition, which opened at the Daniel Cordier gallery on 15 December, before being included in the definitive edition of Surréalisme et la peinture in 1965. A few copies of a book of photographs would also be printed to commemorate the event. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

Autograph manuscript signed by André Breton, 1959.

2 pages in-4° of a handwritten first-draft, titled and signed with erasures and corrections by André Breton on the verso of the EROS letterheaded of this text published under this title in the catalogue of the ERO exhibition, pages 58 to 60. [Auction Catalogue, 2003]

Bibliography

André Breton (Édition publiée sous la direction d'Étienne-Alain Hubert avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier et Marie-Claire Dumas), « Enfin Jean Benoît nous rend le grand cérémonial », Le Surréalisme et la Peinture, IV, Œuvres complètes, tome IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, p. 814-818, notice p. 1380.

Hommage de Fernando Arrabal à Jean Benoit