La Révolution surréaliste - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

La Révolution surréaliste (The Surrealist Revolution) was a publication by the Surrealists

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

in Paris. Twelve issues were published between 1924 and 1929.

Shortly after releasing the first Surrealist Manifesto

Surrealist Manifesto

Two Surrealist Manifestos were issued by the Surrealist movement, in 1924 and 1929. The first was written by André Breton, the second was supervised by him. Breton drafted a third Surrealist manifesto which was never issued.-First manifesto:...

, André Breton

André Breton

André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....

published the inaugural issue of La Révolution surréaliste on December 1, 1924.

Pierre Naville

Pierre Naville

Pierre Naville was a French Surrealist writer and sociologist. He was a prominent member of the 'Investigating Sex' group of Surrealist thinkers.In politics, he was a Communist and then a Trotskyist, before joining the PSU...

and Benjamin Péret

Benjamin Péret

Benjamin Péret was a French poet, Parisian Dadaist and a founder and central member of the French Surrealist movement with his avid use of Surrealist automatism.-Biography:...

were the initial directors of the publication and modeled the format of the journal on the conservative scientific review La Nature
La Nature
La Nature was a French language magazine aimed at the popularization of science founded in 1873 by French scientist and adventurer Gaston Tissandier...

. The format was deceiving, and to the Surrealists' delight, La Révolution surréaliste was consistently scandalous and revolutionary. The journal focused on writing with most pages densely packed with columns of text, but also included reproductions of art, among them works by Giorgio de Chirico

Giorgio de Chirico

Giorgio de Chirico was a pre-Surrealist and then Surrealist Italian painter born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. He founded the scuola metafisica art movement...

, Max Ernst

Max Ernst

Max Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism.-Early life:...

, André Masson

André Masson

André-Aimé-René Masson was a French artist.-Biography:Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but was brought up in Belgium. He began his study of art at the age of eleven in Brussels, at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts under the guidance of Constant Montald, and later he studied in Paris...

and Man Ray

Man Ray

Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...

Selected issues

Issue 1 (December 1924): The cover of the initial issue announced the revolutionary agenda of La Révolution surréaliste with, "It is necessary to start work on a new declaration of the rights of man."

In a mock scientific fashion the journal explored issues related to the darker sides of the human psyche with articles focused on violence, death and suicide. Detached descriptions of violent crime taken from police reports, and an impartial survey on suicide were included.

Issue 3 (April 1925): The cover of the third issue announced, "End of the Christian Era." Inside articles convey a blasphemous and anticlerical tone. Writer and actor Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud

Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, more well-known as Antonin Artaud was a French playwright, poet, actor and theatre director...

wrote an open letter, "Address to the Pope," and expresses the revolt against what Surrealists saw as oppressive religious values: "The world is the soul's abyss, warped Pope, Pope foreign to the soul. Let us swim in our own bodies, leave our souls within our souls; we have no need of your knife-blade of enlightenment." Such anticlerical remarks are found throughout and reflect the group's relentless campaign against oppression and bourgeois morality.

Issue 4: Breton announced in the fourth issue that he was taking over the publication. His concern about disruptive factions that had developed in the Surrealist group brought him to assert his power and restate the Surrealist principles as he conceived them.

Thereafter, each issue became more political with articles and declarations that have a Communist slant.

Issue 8 (December 1926): The growing fascination with sexual perversion is revealed in an article by Paul Éluard

Paul Éluard

Paul Éluard, born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel , was a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement.-Biography:...

which celebrates the writings of the Marquis de Sade

Marquis de Sade

Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...

, who was imprisoned for much of his life because of his deviant writings about sexual cruelty. According to Éluard, the Marquis "wished to give back to civilized man the strength of his primitive instincts." Writing and imagery, influenced by de Sade, by Breton, Man Ray, and Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí

Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....

was also included. Man Ray also published photographs of Eugene Atget in this issue.

Issues 9 and 10 (October 1927): Introduce Exquisite corpse

Exquisite corpse

Exquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver or rotating corpse, is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule Exquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver (from the original...

(Le Cadavre exquis)—a game the Surrealists enjoyed that involves folding a sheet of paper so that several people contribute to the drawing of a figure or writing text without seeing the preceding portions. The issue includes some exquisite corpse results.

Issue 11 : The interest in sex continues in the eleventh issue with "Research into Sexuality," an account of a debate that took place in January 1928. In the frank discussion, more than a dozen Surrealists openly expressed their opinions on sexual matters, including a variety of perversions.

Issue 12 (December 1929): Contains Breton's "Second Surrealist Manifesto." The declaration marks the end of the group's most cohesive and focused years, and signals the start of disagreements within the group. Breton celebrated his faithful supporters, and denounced those who had defected and betrayed his doctrine. Also contains the full script of Un Chien Andalou
Un chien andalou
Un Chien Andalou is a 1929 silent surrealist short film by the Spanish director Luis Buñuel and artist Salvador Dalí. It was Buñuel's first film and was initially released in 1929 to a limited showing in Paris, but became popular and ran for eight months....

with Luis Buñuel

Luis Buñuel

Luis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker — later a naturalized citizen of Mexico — who worked in Spain, Mexico, France and the US..-Early years:...

's preface.

After La Révolution surréaliste

Some of the dissidents voiced their views in the periodical Documents beginning in April 1929. Writings by ethnographers, archaeologists, and art historians, and poets Georges Bataille

Georges Bataille

Georges Bataille was a French writer. His multifaceted work is linked to the domains of literature, anthropology, philosophy, economy, sociology and history of art...

and Michel Leiris

Michel Leiris

Julien Michel Leiris was a French surrealist writer and ethnographer.-Biography:...

emerged as the main contributors. Some of the Documents contributors went later formed another group, Acéphale

Acéphale

Acéphale designates both a public review created by Georges Bataille and a secret and esoteric society formed by Bataille and some other members who had sworn to keep silence.-Acéphale, the review:Dated 24 June 1936, the first issue was composed of only eight pages...

.

Breton's successor to La Révolution surréaliste was a more politically engaged publication, Le Surrealisme au service de la revolution
Le Surrealisme au service de la revolution
Le Surréalisme au service de la révolution was a periodical issued by the Surrealist Group in Paris between 1930 and 1933...

(Surrealism in the service of the revolution), which appeared sporadically between 1930 and 1933.

In 1933, publisher Albert Skira

Albert Skira

Albert Skira was a Swiss publisher.In 1933, he contacted André Breton about a new journal, which he planned to be the most luxurious art and literary review the Surrealists had seen, featuring a slick format with many color illustrations. Skira's restriction was that Breton was not allowed to use...

contacted Breton about a new journal, which he planned to be the most luxurious art and literary review the Surrealists had seen, featuring a slick format with many color illustrations. Skira's restriction was that Breton was not allowed to use the magazine to express his social and political views. Later that year Minotaure
Minotaure
Minotaure, published between 1933 and 1939, was a Surrealist-oriented publication founded by Albert Skira in Paris. The editors were André Breton and Pierre Mabille. It was a luxurious publication, sporting original artworks on its cover by prestigious artists like Pablo Picasso...

began publication, and continued publication until 1984.

Selected issues

After La Révolution surréaliste

See also