André Breton, 1896-1966
27 May - 21 Dec 2015
42, rue Fontaine
Curator : Mnam/Cci / Jean-Michel Bouhours, Camille Morando
Serving in a military psychiatric hospital since being called up in 1915, André Breton, a great enthusiast for Symbolist poetry, made his decisive encounters with Jacques Vaché, Louis Aragon, Guillaume Apollinaire and the thought of Sigmund Freud. In 1919, he founded the magazine Littérature with Aragon and Philippe Soupault, soon to be joined by Paul Eluard. After his break with Dada, Breton wrote the First Surrealist Manifesto, published in 1924, championing the principle of “pure psychic automatism” in order to draw on the mechanisms of dream and the unconscious. A writer, poet and theorist, creator of objects and of “exquisite corpses”, Breton edited and collaborated on many magazines, organised exhibitions and lectured in France and abroad, also amassing a collection of some 10,000 objects, artworks and documents. At the same time, he surrounded himself with artists, poets and writers, a varied and varying constellation. In the 1930s, Breton’s Surrealism took on an international dimension, carrying with it as it travelled the seeds of magic and wonder. Jean-Michel Bouhours et Camille Morando, in collaboration with Patrick Palaquer
Curator : Mnam/Cci / Jean-Michel Bouhours, Camille Morando
Serving in a military psychiatric hospital since being called up in 1915, André Breton, a great enthusiast for Symbolist poetry, made his decisive encounters with Jacques Vaché, Louis Aragon, Guillaume Apollinaire and the thought of Sigmund Freud. In 1919, he founded the magazine Littérature with Aragon and Philippe Soupault, soon to be joined by Paul Eluard. After his break with Dada, Breton wrote the First Surrealist Manifesto, published in 1924, championing the principle of “pure psychic automatism” in order to draw on the mechanisms of dream and the unconscious. A writer, poet and theorist, creator of objects and of “exquisite corpses”, Breton edited and collaborated on many magazines, organised exhibitions and lectured in France and abroad, also amassing a collection of some 10,000 objects, artworks and documents. At the same time, he surrounded himself with artists, poets and writers, a varied and varying constellation. In the 1930s, Breton’s Surrealism took on an international dimension, carrying with it as it travelled the seeds of magic and wonder. Jean-Michel Bouhours et Camille Morando, in collaboration with Patrick Palaquer