Today it is considered that surrealism was born on the day André Breton launched his Surrealist Manifesto, October 15, 1924. It has therefore been a century since the movement took off, even though the term had been created a few years earlier, with the performance of the play Les Mamelles de Tirésias, subtitled "Surrealist drama in two acts and a prologue". Moreover, the same Breton claimed, rightly, to have contributed to Apollinaire's choice of this word. However, the group constituted by this animator had taken birth during the war, and it had taken a first form with the arrival of Dada in Paris, and especially with the publication, in March 1919, of the first issue of the journal Littérature directed by Philippe Soupault, André Breton and Louis Aragon. Dada, buried in June 1923 to the sound of the Beaux-Arts fanfare, followed a period that Aragon called the "fuzzy movement", in reference to those haute couture lines he was fond of. Then came the Surrealist Movement, which lasted until its dissolution in 1969 by Jean Schuster whom Breton had designated to succeed him after his death. But the movement did not stop there, under various forms, and above all it maintained itself in various countries of Europe and the Americas, even Africa, where it persists to this day. Its activity in all artistic fields has never ceased to occur, giving rise to important collective exhibitions. Analyses, essays on the Movement or each of its adherents have never ceased to be published, to such an extent that the collective production figures in the programs of schools and universities, maintaining, in a certain way, the presence of surrealism well after its occultation. This is why the present chronology extends over an entire century. To constitute it, I took up the one that Michel Carassou and I had provided in our collection Surrealism, texts and debates (1) and helped myself with the database "Surrealists of all countries", created by Véronique Duchemin and Loïc Le Bail within our research center, updated by the latter and available to all on the Internet.
The Surrealist Century
1924
New arrivals in the group: Antonin Artaud, Max Ernst, Max Morise, Pierre Naville, Raymond Queneau, Maxime Alexandre, André Masson, Joan Miró, Michel Leiris, Georges Limbour. October 11: Opening of the Bureau of Surrealist Research, 15 rue de Grenelle, Paris. October 15: Breton publishes the Surrealist Manifesto. October 18: A Corpse, pamphlet against Anatole France, after his death. December 1: first issue of The Surrealist Revolution. Aragon: A Wave of Dreams; Libertinage. Baron: Poetic Allure. Breton: The Lost Steps. Breton: Introduction to the Discourse on the Paucity of Reality. Desnos: Mourning for Mourning. Vitrac: The Mysteries of Love.
1925
January 5: The Surrealist Revolution, n° 2; publishes an inquiry: "Is suicide a solution?" Declaration of January 27, 1925. Crevel returns to the surrealist group. Estrangement from Soupault. June 12: Joan Miró exhibition, Galerie Pierre Paris, prefaced by Péret. Scandal provoked by the surrealists during the Saint-Pol-Roux Banquet. Rapprochement with the Clarté group, close to the communist party. Aragon: Perpetual Motion. Artaud: The Umbilical Limbo. Crevel: My Body and Me. Péret: There Was a Baker.
1926
Breton-Naville polemic. Break with Soupault. Aragon: The Paris Peasant. September: Breton: Legitimate Defense. Crevel: Difficult Death. Desnos: It's the Seven-League Boots... Éluard: Capital of Pain. Vitrac: Knowledge of Death.
1927
Aragon, Breton, Éluard, Péret and Unik join the communist party. May: they publish In Broad Daylight. Break with Artaud, then with Vitrac. Adhesion of the rue du Château group: Jacques and Pierre Prévert, Marcel Duhamel, Yves Tanguy. Crevel: Babylon. Desnos: Freedom or Love! Leiris: The Cardinal Point.
1928
Estrangement from Desnos. Rapprochement with Picasso. December 24: creation of Victor or Children in Power, "surrealist drama" by Roger Vitrac, by the Théâtre Alfred-Jarry, directed by Artaud, at the Comédie des Champs-Élysées. Bucharest: S. Pana animates the journal Unu (1928-1933) Aragon: Treatise on Style. Breton: Nadja; Surrealism and Painting. Éluard: Defense of Knowledge. Japan: Shi to shiron (Poetry and (art) poetics), 14 n°, 1928-1931.
1929
March 11: meeting at the Bar du Château: condemnation of the Grand Jeu group (René Daumal, Roger Gilbert-Lecomte, Roger Vaillant...)
Break with Baron, Desnos, Leiris, Limbour, Prévert, Queneau.
Adhesion of René Char, Salvador Dali, Georges Hugnet, Georges Sadoul, André Thirion.
Rapprochement with Tzara and with René Magritte.
June: Variétés, special issue, "Surrealism in 1929".
June 25: Breton: Second Surrealist Manifesto.
November 6: suicide of Jacques Rigaut.
December: The Théâtre Alfred-Jarry and Public Hostility, by Roger Vitrac and Antonin Artaud.
Sweden: Halmstad group.
Crevel: Are You Crazy?
Ernst: The Hundred-Headed Woman.
1930
July: 1st issue of Surrealism at the Service of the Revolution. Aragon and Sadoul attend the Kharkov congress (U.S.S.R.) Aragon: Painting at Defiance. Breton-Éluard: The Immaculate Conception. Breton-Char-Éluard: Slow Down Works. May, Belgrade: journal Nemogucé – The Impossible, bilingual Serbo-Croatian and French.
1931
January 2: Scandal provoked by the screening of The Golden Age, by Buñuel and Dali. Invention of paranoia-criticism by the latter. May 5: Tracts hostile to the colonial exhibition. Breton: Free Union. Tzara: The Approximate Man.
1932
January: the surrealists join the AEAR (Association of Revolutionary Writers and Artists) founded by the communist Vaillant-Couturier. February: "Aragon affair": after the publication of "Red Front", Aragon is indicted by military justice; petition in his favor; disavowal of Aragon and break with the surrealists. Break with M. Alexandre, Sadoul, Unik. Legitimate Defense, Paris, 1 n°. Dir.: Lero, Ménil, P. Yoyotte. Adhesion of Roger Caillois, Maurice Henry, Gilbert Lély, Jules Monnerot. Breton: Misery of Poetry; Communicating Vessels; The White-Haired Revolver. Crevel: Diderot's Harpsichord. Eluard: Immediate Life. Tzara: Where Wolves Drink.
1933
Breton is excluded from the communist party and the A.E.A.R. Tract against the Amsterdam-Pleyel congress: Mobilization against war is not peace. Last issue of Surrealism A.S.D.L.R.; Minotaur (n° 1 and 2). December: the brochure defending Violette Nozières appears in Brussels. Crevel: Feet in the Dish. Tzara: The Antithead.
1934
Tract: Call to Struggle, after the February 6 riots. The surrealists join the Committee of Vigilance of Intellectuals. April 24: tract Planet without Visa in favor of Trotsky expelled from France. Estrangement from Char. The Black Student, Paris, 1 n°: Césaire, Damas, Senghor. Arrival of Jacques Hérold, Gisèle Prassinos and Oscar Dominguez. Breton: The Air of Water; Daybreak. Char: The Hammer without Master. Éluard: The Public Rose. Péret: From Behind the Faggots.
1935
Official creation of the English surrealist group. March 27-April 11: Breton, Éluard and their wives in Prague. May 4-27: Breton, Péret and their companions in the Canaries. Publication of the International Bulletin of Surrealism 4 in these two countries. June 18: suicide of Crevel. Breton is forbidden to speak at the Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture (June 21-25, Paris). Definitive break with the P.C.F. Breton: Political Position of Surrealism. Éluard: Easy. Marcel Jean: To Die for the Fatherland. Prassinos: The Arthritic Grasshopper. Tzara: Grains and Issues.
1936
July 1-14: international exhibition of surrealism in London. International Bulletin of Surrealism, published by the Surrealist Group in England, n°4, September. Rapprochement with Georges Bataille: publication of the Contre-Attaque notebooks. Éluard: The Fertile Eyes. Hugnet: The Seventh Face of the Die. Péret: I Sublime; I Don't Eat That Bread.
1937
Position taken against the Moscow trials. Péret in the ranks of the Spanish republican army. Arrival of Hans Bellmer and Léonora Carrington. Breton: Mad Love. Éluard: Poetic Evidence; Free Hands. Leiris: Bullfighting. Cairo: "Surrealist Group" (1937-1939 followed by "Art and Liberty" (1939-1946)
1938
January-February: international exhibition of surrealism in Paris. April: publication of the London Bulletin. Breton-Trotsky meeting in Mexico: manifesto For an Independent Revolutionary Art and foundation of the FIARI. July, Chile, foundation of the La Mandragora group. Break with Éluard. Breton-Éluard: Abridged Dictionary of Surrealism. Julien Gracq: At Argol Castle. Leiris: Manhood. Journal Mandragora, Santiago, Chile, 7 issues, Dec. 1938-Oct. 1943
1939
Exclusion of Dali. Estrangement from Hugnet. Breton, Éluard and Péret are mobilized.
1940
Péret imprisoned escapes. Surrealists gather in Marseille. Adhesion of Wifredo Lam. Romanian surrealist group: Gherasim Luca, D. Trost, V. Teodorescu... (1940-1947). Breton: Anthology of Black Humor; Fata Morgana. Pierre Mabille: The Mirror of the Marvelous.
1941
Breton, Ernst and Masson manage to reach the United States, Péret Mexico... In France, foundation of La Main à plume (Jean-François Chabrun, Noël Arnaud, Christian Dotremont, Léo Malet, Gérard de Sède and André Stil). Foundation of the journal Tropiques by Aimé Césaire, in Martinique.
1942
October 20 New York, exhibition Art Of This Century, Guggenheim Museum; foundation of the journal VVV (4 nos) Breton: Situation of Surrealism Between the Two Wars.
1943
Exhibition in New York: First Papers of Surrealism. December 10, New York: A. Breton meets Elisa who will become his last wife, the recipient of Arcane 17. Leiris: Haut-Mal. Santo Domingo, La Poesia soprendida, 16 notebooks by E. Granell
1944
March 19, Paris: Italian reading of Picasso's play, Desire Caught by the Tail, at M. Leiris's, directed by Albert Camus.
1945
Breton in Arizona and New Mexico, then Haiti; revolt against President Lescot. Breton: Arcane 17; Ode to Charles Fourier. Monnerot: Modern Poetry and the Sacred. Maurice Nadeau: History of Surrealism. Péret: The Dishonor of Poets.
1946
Breton's return to France. Evening in honor of Artaud at the Sarah-Bernhardt theater.
1947
Tzara's lecture at the Sorbonne, disrupted by the surrealists. Adhesion of Sarane Alexandrian, Jean-Louis Bédouin, André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Stanislas Rodanski, Jean Schuster. "Surrealist Group of Lisbon", 1947-1950. Malcolm de Chazal: Sens-Plastique.
1948
Death of Antonin Artaud. Gérard Legrand joins. First issue of Néon. The surrealists participate in Garry Davis's “Citizens of the World” movement. Creation of “Revolutionary Surrealism.” March, Paris: founding of CoBrA (Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam). Germany: Meta, Die Metamorphosen (no. 1): “Zeitschrift für experimentale Kunst und Poesie,” 3 issues. Quebec: “Refus global” signed by the Automatistes. Breton: Martinique, Snake Charmer. R. Vailland: The Surrealists Against the Revolution.
1949
Jean-Pierre Duprey joins. Breton: Flagrant délit.
1950
Surrealist Almanac of the Half-Century. Gracq: Literature with a Stomach. Maurice Fourré: The Night of the Rose Hotel. Michel Carrouges: André Breton and the Fundamental Data of Surrealism.
1951
The Carrouges Affair leads to a break with Pastoureau, Hérold, Marcel Jean. Surrealist collaboration with Le Libertaire. Milan: “Movimento nucleare” [“Nuclear Movement”], with Baj, Dangelo, Crippa, 1951–1961.
1952
First issue of Médium. Opening of the “L’Étoile scellée” gallery. The surrealists attend René Alleau’s lectures on alchemy. Exhibition: Surrealistische Malerei in Europa – Surrealist Painting in Europe, Saarbrücken. Organizer: Jené. Buenos Aires, 1952–1954: A partir de cero [From Zero: “journal of poetry and anti-poetry”], A. Pellegrini. “Wiener Gruppe,” Vienna, 1952–1964. Breton: Conversations. Gracq: The Opposing Shore.
1953
Arrival of Joyce Mansour and Max Walter Svanberg. Édouard Jaguer founds the Phases movement. Breton: The Key to the Fields.
1954
Exclusion of Max Ernst, who accepted the Grand Prize at the Venice Biennale. Carrouges: The Bachelor Machines.
1955
January 15: death of Yves Tanguy. Pierre Molinier exhibition, Galerie À l’Étoile scellée.
1956
First issue of Surréalisme, même. Ferdinand Alquié: Philosophy of Surrealism. Péret: Anthology of Sublime Love. Senghor: Ethiopiques.
1957
“Hongrie soleil levant” tract in support of the Hungarian Revolution. Vincent Bounoure joins. La Louvière (Belgium): founding of Daily Bul. Founding of the Situationist International.
1958
May 13 coup d’état. In response, creation of the journal 14 juillet by Jean Schuster and Dionys Mascolo. Bounoure: Preface to a Treatise on Matrices. 1958–1969: French section of the Situationist International.
1959
September 18: death of Péret. Suicide of Duprey. International exhibition in Paris: “E ros.”
1961
First issue of La Brèche.
1962
Venezuela, Caracas: El Techo de la ballena.
1965
International exhibition in Paris: “L’Écart absolu.” A. Breton, Le Surréalisme et la peinture, 2nd ed. Paris, Gallimard. Robert Benayoun: Erotique du surréalisme. Joyce Mansour: Carré blanc.
1966
July 10–18, Cerisy-la-Salle, surrealist symposium led by F. Alquié. September 28: death of Breton in Paris[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. The surrealist group is founded in Chicago (USA).
1967
First issue of L’Archibras. H. Béhar, Study on Dada and Surrealist Theatre, Paris, Gallimard, “Les Essais” series.
1968
May 5, leaflet “No Shepherds for This Rage!” hailing the student movement. Special issues of L’Archibras on May ’68 and the repression in Czechoslovakia.
1969
Last issue of L’Archibras. October 4: J. Schuster publishes “Le Quatrième chant” in Le Monde, announcing the dissolution of the group; reply by J.-L. Bédouin in the same newspaper. Prague: “Group of Surrealists in Czechoslovakia” active “underground,” 1969–1989. José Vovelle, Le Surréalisme en Belgique, Brussels, De Rache.
1973
Deaths of Picasso (France), Asger Jorn (Denmark).
1974
Sarane Alexandrian, Le Surréalisme et le rêve, Paris, Gallimard.
1975
Death of Illiazd Zdanevitch (1894–1975). M. Bonnet, André Breton. Birth of the Surrealist Adventure, J. Corti. Exhibition: Armes et bagages, March 15–May 2, Lyon, “Verrière” gallery.
1976
Deaths of Man Ray, Max Ernst.
1982
General Dictionary of Surrealism and Related Fields, edited by Adam Biro and René Passeron, PUF. Surrealist Tracts, Vols. I & II, edited by José Pierre, Losfeld.
1983
J. Chénieux-Gendron, Le Surréalisme et le roman, 1922–1950, Lausanne, L’Age d’Homme. Kral (Petr): Surrealism in Czechoslovakia, Paris, Gallimard.
1986
Exhibition: “Continent abstrait, continent surréaliste: paintings, drawings, collages, objects, photographs,” Feb. 18–Mar. 30, Paris, “1900-2000” gallery. Exhibition: “La Planète affolée: Surrealism, Dispersion and Influences, 1938–1947,” Apr. 12–June 30, 1986, Marseille, Centre de la Vieille Charité.
1988
André Breton: Œuvres complètes, Pléiade-Gallimard, 4 vols. 2008. Exhibition: Women and Surrealism, Lausanne, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts.
1989
Laurens Vancrevel (ed.), Spiegel van de surrealistische poëzie in het Nederlands [Anthology of Surrealist Poetry in Dutch], Amsterdam, Meulenhoff; expanded reissue 2012.
1990
André Breton, the Great Undesirable (biography by H. Béhar).
1991
International Surrealist Bulletin (1991–1992). Strasbourg conference, Surrealist Europe (see Mélusine XIV). Norway: “Surrealist Festival,” Bergen, Sept. 19–Oct. 13.
1992
Exhibition: Surrealismo Nuevo Mundo, Oct. 21–Nov. 20, Buenos Aires, “Biblioteca Nacional” and “Alliance Française” of Argentina.
1996
Penelope Rosemont, Surrealist Women: An International Anthology, Texas Press.
1999
G. Colvile, Scandalously Themselves, 34 portraits, J.-M. Place.
2002
Mar. 6–June 24, exhibition “La Révolution surréaliste,” Centre Pompidou.
2003
Apr. 7–17: sale of André Breton collection, salle Drouot.
2004
Gérard Durozoi, History of the Surrealist Movement, F. Hazan. Artaud, Œuvres complètes, Quarto-Gallimard. Elza Adamowicz, This Is Not a Painting: Surrealist Writings on Art, L’Âge d’homme, "Bibliothèque Mélusine" series. Mélusine, “Surrealist Cinema,” L’Age d’homme.
2007
X. Canonne, Surrealism in Belgium, Mercator.
2009
Franklin Rosemont and Robin D. G. Kelley, Black, Brown & Beige: Surrealist Writings from Africa and the Diaspora, University of Texas Press. Exhibition: La Subversion des images: Surrealism, Photography, Film, Paris, Centre Pompidou. S. Arfouilloux, Let Night Fall on the Orchestra, Paris, Fayard, 2009.
2010
Keith Aspley, Historical Dictionary of Surrealism, Scarecrow Press.
2011
Miguel Pérez Corrales, Caleidoscopio surrealista: una visión del surrealismo internacional (1916–2011), La Página. Feb.–May: Centre Pompidou: “Surrealism Beyond Walls” exhibition.
2013
Oct 30: Exhibition: Surrealism and the Object, Paris, Pompidou.
2016
Mélusine no. XXIV, Performing Arts.
2019
Michael Richardson, The International Encyclopedia of Surrealism, 2019.
2020
June: installation of the Wall from André Breton’s studio at the Centre Pompidou.
2022
Exhibition: “The Invention of Surrealism,” Dec. 15, 2020–Mar. 14, 2021, BnF I François-Mitterrand
2024
Exhibition: Surrealism in the Feminine (Paris, Musée de Montmartre) Complete manuscripts of A. Breton available on Gallica
- Le Livre de poche, 1984; revised and updated in 2013 under the title Le Surréalisme par les textes, Classiques Garnier Editions.