The Lives of the Surrealists

Desmond Morris

• Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780500774182
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: History of Art

No other art movement in history has contained two artists as different as Magritte and Miró. This is because Surrealism was not in origin an art movement, but a philosophical strategy. It was a way of life a rebellion against the establishment that had given the world the hideous slaughter of the First World War. Instead of trying to analyse the work of the Surrealists, bestselling author and Surrealist artist Desmond Morris concentrates on them as people as remarkable individuals. What were their personalities, their predilections, their character strengths and flaws? Did they enjoy a social life or were they loners? Were they bold eccentrics or timid recluses? Drawing on the authors personal knowledge of the Surrealists, this book captures their life histories, idiosyncrasies and often-complex love lives, vividly illustrated with images of the artists and their works. The arts of Surrealism were both spectacular and international, shaped by the darkest, most irrational workings of the unconscious. Shocking, witty and always entertaining, Morris tales illuminate the striking variation in approaches to the Surrealist philosophy, both in the artists work and in their lives.

INDEX

Page numbers refer to the 2018 print edition

Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations

A

Abraham, Jacqueline 50–1

abstract expressionism 141, 143, 173–4, 175, 189, 212, 213

abstract surrealism 8

Abstraction-Création 30

Academy of Arts, Weimar 27, 29

Agar, Eileen 20, 21–6, 56

The Reaper 24

L’Age d’Or 87

Alpert, Anne 176

Apollinaire, Guillaume 223–4, 226

Arm, Annette 134, 136, 137, 138

Armory Show (1913) 103, 234

Arp, Jean (Hans) 6, 12, 27–31, 28, 84, 199

and Alexander Calder 68

and André Breton 63

breaks surrealist rules 56

exhibitions 132

and Marcel Duchamp 107

and Max Ernst 112

and Meret Oppenheim 202

Torso, Navel, Mustache-Flower 31

Art Academy, Brussels 167

Asquith, Herbert 22

Aurenche, Marie-Berthe 115, 116

B

Bacon, Francis 32–9, 33

Figure Study II 36

Balthus 134

Bard, Joseph 23, 25, 26

Barr, Alfred 252

Barrera, Balbina 146

Bartlett, Robin 23

Baziotes, William 175

Beckett, Samuel 246

Bellmer, Hans 40, 41–5

Peg-Top 43

Untitled (Self-Portrait with Doll) 40

Bosch, Hieronymus 15, 85

Boué, Valentine 216, 217, 218, 222

Braemer, Ingrid 127

Brancusi, Constantin 23, 30, 48, 68, 102–3, 108

Braque, Georges 59, 164, 218

Brauner, Victor 46, 47–51, 143

and André Breton 48, 51

Conspiration 49

is expelled from surrealist movement 56

and Leonor Fini 121

and Yves Tanguy 244

Breton, André 6, 15, 52–63, 53, 84, 151, 180

and Alberto Giacometti 132, 134

and Alexander Calder 69

and André Masson 166, 168–9, 171

and Arshile Gorky 141, 143, 177

Un Chien Andalou 86

and de Chirico 52, 59, 78, 79, 81

and Edouard Mesens 182

and Eileen Agar 23, 25

First Surrealist Manifesto (1924) 11–12, 20, 29, 41–2, 55, 82, 173, 224

and Hans Bellmer 42

and Henry Moore 199

and Joan Miró 186, 188–9

Leonor Fini’s view of 51, 121

and Leonora Carrington 74

and Man Ray 236, 239

and Marcel Duchamp 59, 61, 63, 107

and Max Ernst 110, 113, 116–17

and Meret Oppenheim 202, 206

Pablo Picasso 224, 226–7

and Paul Delvaux 94, 97

Poem-Object 58

and René Magritte 160–1, 165

La Révolution Surréaliste 13

and Roberto Matta 143, 174–5, 176–8

and Roland Penrose 215, 217

and Salvador Dalí 63, 82, 86–8, 90, 91

Second Surrealist Manifesto (1929) 169

and Victor Brauner 48, 51

VVV 171

and Wifredo Lam 146, 147, 149

and Wilhelm Freddie 128

and Wolfgang Paalen 211, 212, 213

and Yves Tanguy 241, 244, 246, 247, 248

Breton, Aube 61, 62–3

British Surrealist Group 34

Browner, Juliet 116, 239, 240, 252

Buñuel, Luis 16, 56, 86, 87, 91–2, 160–1

Burra, Edward 56

Burton, Nan 152, 154

C

Cabalé, Odette 16...