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    Description

    This manuscript text, republished in Surrealism and Painting in 1965, was first published in the winter of 1948-1949 in issue 6 of Les Cahiers de la Pléiade.

    Later republished in Surrealism and Painting, accompanied with illustrations by Aloïse and Adolf Wölfli, ‘L'Art des fous, la clé des champs’ (‘The art of the insane, the key to the fields’) was first published at the end of 1948 in Les Cahiers de la Pléiade. It is one of Breton’s most significant texts on painting; at the time the poet was working closely with Jean Dubuffet, but their relationship would gradually become more distant, and Breton’s article hints at several, at this point minor, divergences. The basis of their disagreement is a question of readings: Breton sees outsider art as a liberation of the creative mechanisms whose principle can be compared to the intentions of automatism; for his part Dubuffet insisted on their difference, and what matters for him is ultimately the purely plastic aspect of works by the mentally ill, not their imagination. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

    Signed handwritten manuscript, undated (autumn 1948).
    - 4 pages grand in-8°, in blue ink, titled ‘L'Art des fous, la clé des champs’ and signed par Breton:
    ‘In the veritable manifesto of Art brut which constitutes his introductory text dated October 1948, our friend Jean Dubuffet insists quite rightly on the inherent interest of works of art “created by people considered mentally ill and confined in psychiatric establishments,” and on the very special power of fascination which such works exercise on us. I need hardly say that I associate myself fully with his declaration that “the reasons for which man is presumed unfit for social life seem to me to be based on the scale of values I which is totally unacceptable.” [...]
    I have no hesitation in putting forward the idea, which is paradoxical only at first sight, that the art of those who are classified as mentally ill constitutes a reservoir of mental health.’ [Auction catalogue, 2003]

     

    Translated by Krzysztof Fijalkowski

    Bibliography

    - André Breton, in Les Cahiers de la Pléiade (dir. Paulhan), n° 6 - automne 1948 hiver 1949 [février 1949], 184 pages
    - André Breton (Édition de Marguerite Bonnet avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier, Marie-Claire Dumas, Étienne-Alain Hubert et José Pierre), « L'Art des fous, la clé des champs », La Clé des champs, Œuvres complètes, tome III, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 1999, p. 884-888, notice p. 1407-1408
    - André Breton (Édition publiée sous la direction d'Étienne-Alain Hubert avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier et Marie-Claire Dumas), « L'Art des fous, la clé des champs », Le Surréalisme et la Peinture, Œuvres complètes, tome IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, p. 726-731, notice p. 1358-1359.

    Creation date1948
    Bibliographical material

    Bibliography

    - André Breton, ‘L'Art des fous, la clé des champs’, Les Cahiers de la Pléiade, no. 6 - autumn 1948 - winter 1949 [February 1949].

    - André Breton, ‘L'Art des fous, la clé des champs’, La Clé des champs, Œuvres complètes, volume IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes (edition established by Marguerite Bonnet and edited by Étienne-Alain Hubert with contributions from Philippe Bernier and Marie-Claire Dumas), Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, pp. 884-88, notes pp. 1407-08.

    André Breton, ‘L'Art des fous, la clé des champs’, Le Surréalisme et la Peinture, Œuvres complètes, volume IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes (edition established by Marguerite Bonnet and edited by Étienne-Alain Hubert with contributions from Philippe Bernier and Marie-Claire Dumas), Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, pp. 726-31, notes pp. 1358-59.

    LanguagesFrench
    Physical description

    Ms - encre bleue

    Reference498000
    Breton Auction, 2003Lot 2372
    Keywords, , ,
    CategoriesManuscripts, Andre Breton's Manuscripts
    Set[Breton's Manuscripts and Drawings] dossier Le Surréalisme et la peinture, [AB's Manuscripts] Miscellaneous Manuscripts
    Permanent linkhttps://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100974830

    See also

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    The art of the insane, the key to the fields

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    Typescript dating from 1948 with several handwritten corrections by André Breton destined for Jean Dubuffet.

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    Numéro 6, d'automne 1948 - hiver 1949, de cette revue dirigée par Jean Paulhan à Paris.

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    [Revue] Les Cahiers de la Pléiade