Le Surrealisme au service de la revolution

Le Surréalisme au service de la révolution (Surrealism in the service of the revolution) was a periodical issued by the Surrealist Group in Paris between 1930 and 1933. It was the successor of La Révolution surréaliste
La Révolution surréaliste
La Révolution surréaliste was a publication by the Surrealists in Paris. Twelve issues were published between 1924 and 1929....

(published 1924-29) and proceeded the primarily surrealist publication 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...

(1933 to 1939).

After the writing of his Second Manifesto of Surrealism (1929), which announced the expulsions of several prior surrealists due to theoretical differences, 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"....

and his supporters developed a new, more politically charged publication. The first issue of Le Surréalisme au service de la révolution was published in June 1930, and was followed by five more issues through 1933. Contributors included André Breton

André Breton

, 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:...

, René Crevel

René Crevel

René Crevel was a French writer involved with the surrealist movement.-Life:Crevel was born in Paris to a family of Parisian bourgeoisie. He had a traumatic religious upbringing. At the age of fourteen, during a difficult stage of his life, his father committed suicide by hanging himself. Crevel...

, Tristan Tzara

Tristan Tzara

Tristan Tzara was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement...

, 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....

, René Char

René Char

René Char was a 20th century French poet.-Biography:Char was born in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in the Vaucluse department of France, the youngest of four children of Emile Char and Marie-Therese Rouget, where his father was mayor and managing director of the Vaucluse plasterworks...

, 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:...

, Louis Aragon

Louis Aragon

Louis Aragon , was a French poet, novelist and editor, a long-time member of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt.- Early life :...

, and 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:...

, among others.

Selected issues

Issue 1 features writings by Breton, Éluard, Crevel, Tzara, Dalí, Char, Péret, and Aragon, and others. Illustrations include stills from Buñuel's film L'Âge d'or, paintings by Dalí, and a drawing of the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky

Vladimir Mayakovsky

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.- Early life :...

with a skeleton.

Issue 2 features writings by Breton, Éluard, Crevel, Char, Péret, Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...

, Aragon, and Georges Sadoul

Georges Sadoul

Georges Sadoul was a French journalist and cinema writer.Once a surrealist, he became a communist in 1932. He was a journalist of the Lettres Françaises....

, and others. Illustrations include paintings by Dalí and Yves Tanguy

Yves Tanguy

Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy , known as Yves Tanguy, was a French surrealist painter.-Biography:Tanguy was born in Paris, France, the son of a retired navy captain. His parents were both of Breton origin...

, and a photograph by 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...

. The issue opens with an ad for Breton's First and Second Manifeste du Surrealisme, and ads for two Paris art galleries.

Issue 3 features writings by Breton, Éluard, Char, Tanguy, 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:...

, Pierre Unik, Crevel, and Aragon, and others. Illustrations include photographs of surrealist objects by Breton, Gala Éluard, Valentine Hugo

Valentine Hugo

Valentine Hugo was an artist; she was born Valentine Gross in Boulogne-sur-Mer and died in Paris.Valentine studied painting in Paris, and in 1919 married French artist Jean Hugo , great-grandson of Victor Hugo...

, Joan Miró

Joan Miró

Joan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona.Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride...

, Alberto Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draughtsman, and printmaker.Alberto Giacometti was born in the canton Graubünden's southerly alpine valley Val Bregaglia and came from an artistic background; his father, Giovanni, was a well-known post-Impressionist painter...

, and Dalí. The issue opens with an ad for the books L'Immaculee conception by Breton & Eluard, La Peinture au defi by Aragon, and La Femme Visible by Dalí.

Issue 4 features writings by Breton, Éluard, Char, Tzara, Dalí, Pierre Unik, Crevel, and Aragon, and others. Illustrations include a collage by Ernst, and paintings by Tanguy and Dalí. The issue opens with an ad for several books by Dalí.

Issue 5 features writings by Breton, Éluard, Duchamp, Dalí, Pierre Unik, Paul Nouge

Paul Nougé

Paul Nougé was a Belgian poet, philosopher and surrealist photographer who heavily influenced the Belgian Surrealist School of which he was a member....

, and Aragon, and others. Illustrations include works by Duchamp, Dalí, Hugo, Ernst, and Man Ray. The issue opens with ads for numerous surrealist books by Péret, Tzara, Breton, Dalí, and Crevel, as well as publications by Achim D'Arnim and Lautreamont. There is also promotion of a major exhibit of surrealist art.

Issue 6 features writings by Breton, Buñuel, Char, Tzara, and Péret, and others. Illustrations include works by Giacometti, René Magritte

René Magritte

René François Ghislain Magritte[p] was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images...

, Ernst, Breton, Hugo, Dalí, and Tanguy. The issue opens with an ad for the next surrealist periodical Minotaure.

Selected issues

See also