GÉRARD DUROZOI: SURREALISM

Review par Simone Grahmann

Gérard DUROZOI, author of numerous publications in philosophy, literary criticism and art history and, for the surrealism library, of a vast History of the surrealist movement (1) as well as other works (2), presents here a small book devoted essentially to surrealist art and art in surrealism against the historical background of the different stages of the movement. It contains numerous illustrations: paintings, objects, photographs of works and group members. The presentation of the book already reads like a program: on the cover, a painting by Miró and a lexicon composed of fourteen elements whose first evokes Breton's name, followed by names of surrealist painters and notions concerning the plastic arts, such as collage and frottage: surrealism will often be discussed from a Bretonian perspective and mainly through the plastic arts and visual artists. The work consists of three parts, entitled "The workshops of surrealism", "In the work. Styles and influences", "Itineraries", in which the author retraces the main lines of the surrealist movement and exposes, under the sign of key words such as "dream", "automatism", "unconscious", "poem-object", etc., cited at the beginning of chapters, the main themes of the surrealist quest.

From the start, the author testifies to his enthusiasm for surrealism, wanting to believe that it constitutes "the only revolutionary movement that has not failed" because it seeks to "intervene on all fronts" and "leaves aside no aspect of existence". A point of view that would certainly deserve to be justified (because of its absolute character) and developed insofar as these "aspects of existence" were of very different value within the surrealist quest – if one thinks of the social and political conception, the notion of poetry or even that of reality/surreality itself which, moreover, gave rise to very different and changing considerations during surrealist history. Further on, the author emphasizes the coherent character of surrealism's evolution between 1924 and 1969 and the constancy of its demands. Here again, and even if this is only an introduction, one would wish to find an explanation. Indeed, a coherence – if it really existed, which is debatable – should be demonstrated. This way of proceeding is quite symptomatic of the work and our criticism could apply to the entire text and particularly to its first part. Generally speaking, one can reproach its author for affirming without entering into detailed analysis and for expressing convictions without supporting them with arguments. It seems that there is no possible debate and that everything is final. Yet, the surrealist movement, beyond all its "sure acquisitions", is marked by important contradictions, internal oppositions and sometimes even a war of different positions. The text continues with considerations on the importance of Dada for the future surrealist movement. Inheriting from its "dadaist prehistory" a radically critical dimension towards the dominant values of the twenties, it "is not content to destroy" (allusion to dada, which should be relativized because dada goes well beyond pure destruction (3)) and seeks to impose other values. It takes as its task to restore to the mind its lost powers, wanting to reconstruct a "burning reason" capable of integrating poetry, dream, unconscious, passion, and acting on the real. The visual arts are, like writing, in the service of a permanent exploration of thought and reality.

In the first part, the author recalls the main stages of the movement: the pre-dadaist activities, in New York, of Duchamp, Man Ray and Picabia, the official birth of "Dada" in Zurich "to finish with culture", the manifestations, publications of manifestos, of the Dada magazine in which Tzara calls for a radical absence of meaning, the political aspect of Dada in Germany. He evokes the adherence to dadaism of the founders of Literature, their participation in dadaist actions and finally their break with Dada. Then, he analyzes the "Formation of surrealism" from poetic sources: Rimbaud, Lautréamont, then Valéry, Apollinaire, Reverdy or Saint-Pol Roux. According to Breton, poetry – clairvoyance or revealer of the inconceivable – had to devote itself to the restitution of the liveliest thought. Automatic writing becomes the means of access to the message of the unconscious and to unknown zones like that of drives and desire. The collective declarations in The Surrealist Revolution claim the total freedom of the mind and call for revolutionary action parallel to surrealist action. Surrealism opens to painting thanks to Picasso, Ernst, Man Ray, Masson. Subsequently, the author draws up a "History of the surrealist movement", often from Breton's position: the political period and the adherence to the Communist Party of certain members of the group which ends in "failure", "because of the narrowness of the party's cultural views"; internal conflicts, exclusions and new adherences; the internationalization of the movement; the Second manifesto of surrealism in which Breton defines his quest for a "point of the mind" where contradictions are resolved; the exploration of the domain of mental illness and its frontiers with "health"; the problematic of dream and action (Freud and Marx) and the ambition to reconcile these two fields of surrealist intervention, but also the role of painters in surrealism. The author also comments on the political position of surrealism which emerges through a redefinition of objectives in the face of world events (the Spanish War, the Moscow trials, the rise of Nazism in Germany). He describes the emigration, during the Second World War, of numerous surrealists and their activities abroad: the magazine VVV, the exhibition First papers of surrealism, the Prolegomena to a third manifesto of surrealism or not by Breton, etc. The post-war period is marked by the quest for new values (incompatible, according to the author, with "the 'cultural' directives of the communists"), the search for a new myth and the exploration of ways of possible initiation to mythical imagination. Then, the collective manifestations and political interventions of the rejuvenated group around the magazines Neon, Medium, Surrealism itself, Bief and The Breach and the exhibitions E.R.O.S. and The absolute gap (the most openly ideological against the values of consumer society) are evoked. Breton's death finally leads to the cessation of collective activities and Jean Schuster's declaration concerning the end of surrealism as a constituted movement, but also the continuation of activities by others (the Surrealist liaison bulletin, the magazine Surrealism). The author concludes that those who claim surrealism must show themselves "concerned with the three values that weave the guiding thread of the adventure: poetry, love, freedom".

The second part of the work is devoted to the bases of the surrealist approach: articulated around these three permanent values – poetry, love, freedom, the analysis of the various techniques that surrealists take up or invent shows that their works seek something quite different from aesthetic satisfaction: they intend to translate deep thought to relaunch that of the spectator, while aiming at authentic effectiveness... If plastic works are largely present in this chapter, one regrets that literary works, notably poetry, find only little statement there, despite a chapter entitled "Poetry" in which this notion is mainly conceptualized and illustrated through its expression in art. Through "Poetry", surrealism seeks a pooling of thought and believes in a poetry "made by all and not by one" (Lautréamont). It wants to disturb the visual given thanks to the bringing together of distant realities (Max Ernst's collages), find access to the latencies of the real (the new lighting of ordinary objects by Man Ray), activate the hallucinatory capacities of matter (frottages by Ernst, sand paintings by Masson, decalcomanias by Dominguez). It is about destroying aesthetic conventions (Miró: "assassinate painting") and using painting to expose subjectivity (see Dalí's paranoid-critical method, applied for the systematic development of obsessions). Painting becomes a philosophical exercise in Magritte who poses a question about the relationships between things, their images and their names. With a certain conception of "Love", surrealism gives itself the task of exploring all aspects of passion (Sade, Germain Nouveau) and the polymorphous character of fantasies (Bellmer, Moulinier, Magritte). It affirms the omnipotence of love and scrutinizes its wanderings. The exaltation and veneration of woman refer to a quasi-mystical attitude (Dax, Svanberg). Desire integrates into a quest for meaning and signs and testifies to the presence in ordinary reality of another ignored world. It is about adhering to its energies and effecting a true erotization of the world (Man Ray, Lam, Matta). "Freedom" of mind and being is the sacred wish of surrealism. The surrealists find escape routes in savage or primitive arts (Oceanic in particular) which testify to a highly poetic mythology, in naive art (of the Douanier Rousseau), in the raw art of the mentally ill and mediums. Free thought also manifests itself in the exercise of automatism.

In the third part, the main places (workshops, cafés, cities, monuments) marking the history of surrealism are listed, as well as those that were recognized by the group members as particularly "haunted". This chapter evokes as much the "surreality of Paris" as significant places such as Nantes (presence of Rimbaud, Breton's meeting with Vaché); outside France, it cites Prague, Barcelona, Tenerife as well as Mexico, Martinique, Haiti or Cuba while enumerating events and encounters connected to these places.

The work is a summary synthesis retracing the main stages of the surrealist movement and presenting the different achievements in art. Nevertheless, the reader too often finds himself faced with grand phrases which, if they are pertinent and just, do not result from an analysis developed beforehand, but tacitly supposed (this is found in the History of the surrealist movement by our author), but this is certainly one of the dangers of a partial resumption. Now, if one cannot reproach an author – as Ferdinand Alquié had written in the foreword to his Philosophy of surrealism (4) – the choice of his subject nor the perspective from which this subject is approached, the title of the book, too general, would certainly deserve to be restricted or specified to reflect the author's intention and, in this way, better guide the reader. If, indeed, the work does not offer new perspectives in research on surrealism, it could nevertheless serve as a useful support to introduce a little-informed reader to surrealist art, reminding him of the movement's history and presenting the artists who adhered to it.

    1 — Paris, Hazan, 1997, 750 p. ↩

    2 — In collaboration with Bernard LERCHERBONNIER: André Breton. Surrealist writing, Paris, Larousse, 1974, 255 p., and Surrealism. Theories, themes, techniques, Paris, Larousse, 1972, 286 p. ↩

    3 — Cf. Henri BEHAR, Michel CARASSOU: Dada, history of a subversion, Paris, Fayard, 1990, 261 p. ↩

    4 — Paris, Flammarion, 1955, p. 7. ↩