poured scorn on writers who, in their eyes, belonged to the category of obsolete literature. Their conduct itself was abusive and unacceptable: Soupault, for example, swung on the chandelier. The woman writer Rachilde later complained that a tall fellow there with a German accent kicked her (it was probably Max Ernst). The scandalous situation which had started in the restaurant spilled out onto the street. However, for the future of Surrealism, the views they expressed that were related to art and the language of painting were of much more importance.
In addition to the journal, the Surrealists published separate declarations as well. The “Declaration of 27 July 1925” stated: “Surrealism is not a new or easier means of expression, nor even a metaphysic of poetry. It is a means of total liberation of the mind and of everything in common with it. …Surrealism is not a poetic form. It is a cry of the mind…”
In 1926, collections of Surrealist poems by Aragon, Paris Peasant, and Éluard, The Capital of Pain, rolled off the press. Éluard’s poems were enigmatic and refined:
The river which I have under the tongue
The water which people do not imagine, my little boat,
And, the curtains lowered, let us talk.[56]
Despite their seemingly accidental quality and spontaneity, and the word-games and automatic writing they employ, these poems produced a striking image of the Surrealist world which the poets and the artists alongside them were creating:
In a few seconds
The painter and his model
Will take flight.
More virtues
Or fewer misfortunes
I notice a statue
A sort of almond
A shiny medal
For the biggest grief.[57]
Kay Sage, I Saw Three Cities, 1944.
Oil on canvas, 92 × 71 cm.
Princeton University Art Museum, gift of Kay Sage Tanguy, Princeton.
Félix Labisse, The Camp of Drap d’Or, 1943.
Private Collection.
Sometimes an Éluard poem is limited to only one line, to give the maximum possible concentration to its expressive impact:
She tells the future. And I am responsible for confirming the truth of it.[58]
Sometimes the poet, it seems, forgets about mystery, about Surrealism, and reveals realistic human emotions:
The heart bruised, the soul aching, the hands tired out, the hair white, the prisoners, all the water has come upon me like an open wound.[59]
In 1925, there also occurred an event of exceptional importance: the first joint exhibition of Surrealist painting was held in Paris at the Galerie Pierre. The artists involved were Arp, de Chirico, Ernst, Klee, Man Ray, Miró, Picasso and Pierre Roy. It was the beginning of the succession of displays of painting and sculpture that make it possible to speak of Surrealism both as a phenomenon and at the same time as the union of diverse and outstanding aesthetic talents. In the same year, the Galerie Pierre organised an exhibition of Juan Miró. On 26 March 1926, the Galerie Surréaliste was solemnly opened, and it showed work by Duchamp and Picabia, as well as those artists already named. In 1928, the Galerie Bernheim put on an individual exhibition of Max Ernst. The ranks of the Surrealist artists in Paris were reinforced by incomers from other countries. In 1927, René Magritte arrived from Belgium. In 1928, Salvador Dalí came from Spain to Paris for the first time, and he had his first personal exhibition in Paris in 1929. In 1931, Alberto Giacometti, a native of Switzerland, exhibited his Surrealist sculpture-objects for the first time. The Surrealist artists illustrated books, painted scenery for contemporary theatrical productions, and made Surrealist films. It would be fair to say that at this stage, the Surrealists’ creative work pointed in different directions: literature ceded pride of place to the visual arts which were steadily gathering momentum.
However, Surrealism as a movement had already experienced the moment of its triumph. Even in the early stages, absolute unity had not been one of its characteristics, but now disagreements were becoming increasingly acute. The events in the political and social life of Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century were bound to be reflected in a movement which took such an uncompromising, even anarchist position on the subject of the bourgeois world. First the Revolution in Russia and the wave of unrest that hit the whole of Europe as a result, along with Lenin and Trotsky’s writings; then the war in Morocco, and the necessity for the French intelligentsia to determine their own position in relation to it – all this provoked not only heated polemics from the Surrealists that were directed against other groups of intellectuals in Paris, but also sharp disagreements within the movement. It seemed as though the Surrealists only had to go one step further before they found themselves moving into social and political activism. In any event, in the middle of the twentieth century they left their ivory tower, feeling that they had a bond with the destructive forces of the revolution. “The authentic art of today is hand in glove with the social function of revolution: art, like the latter, aims to confuse and to destroy capitalist society”, Breton wrote.[60] In this situation, the question arose: what in practical terms could the Surrealists accomplish? Pierre Naville put this question in his article, “Intellectuals and the Revolution”. According to him, the Surrealists had the choice of two directions: “either to persist in a negative attitude along anarchist lines, a false attitude from the outset because it does not justify the idea of revolution which it proclaims, an attitude which is subordinate to the refusal to compromise one’s own existence and the sacred character of the individual in a fight which would lead towards the disciplined action of the class struggle; or, commit oneself resolutely to a revolutionary course, the only revolutionary course, the Marxist course.”[61] Breton affirmed his solidarity with the Communist Party.
Oscar Domínguez, The Minotaur, 1938.
Private Collection.
The most decisive position on the political level was taken by the Five (“Les Cinq”): Aragon, Breton, Éluard, Peret, Unik. In November 1926, they excluded Antonin Artaud and Philippe Soupault from the Surrealist movement for “incompatibility of aims”. They thought that it was now no longer enough to state one’s position: one had to take the side of the party of revolution. Ties which had once seemed so strong were cut as friendships were destroyed by these heated arguments. The framework of Surrealism seemed to some of them to be too narrow. Desnos and Naville left the movement. Breton was implacable towards his former friends. He demanded that the performance which Artaud was arranging should be taken off the stage, despite the fact that Artaud had already been excluded from the group, and he got the police to come to the theatre. Breton’s position gave rise to an increasing level of discontent, and he was reproached for his tyrannical treatment of the members of the group. Breton thought that it was necessary to manage every Surrealist to make sure that his individual activity conformed to the revolutionary line. In 1929, La Révolution surréaliste published the Second Surrealist Manifesto. Breton thought it was his duty to remind everyone else what the principles of Surrealism were and to purge it of everything that, from his point of view, was a betrayal. In response to this, his former friends
“The River”, Paul Éluard,
“Interior”,
“Nil”,
“Nil”,
Maurice Nadeau,
