Andre Breton

Biography

Born into modest origins in Tinchebray (Orne) in Normandy, he studied medicine and psychiatry. During World War I he worked in a neurological ward in Nantes, where he met the spiritual son of Alfred Jarry, Jacques Vache, whose anti-social attitude and disdain for established artistic tradition influenced Breton considerably. Vache committed suicide at age 24 and his war-time letters to Breton and others were published in a volume entitled Lettres de guerre (1919), for which Breton wrote four introductory essays.

From Dada to Surrealism
1919 Breton founded the review Litterature with Louis Aragon and Philippe Soupault. He also connected with Dadaist Tristan Tzara. In 1924 he was instrumental to the founding of the Bureau of Surrealist Research.

In The Magnetic Fields (Les Champs Magnetiques), a collaboration with Soupault, he put the principle of automatic writing into practice. He published the Surrealist Manifesto in 1924, and was editor of La Revolution surrealiste from 1924. A group coalesced around him - Philippe Soupault, Louis Aragon, Paul Eluard, Rene Crevel, Michel Leiris, Benjamin Peret, Antonin Artaud, and Robert Desnos.

Anxious to combine the themes of personal transformation found in the works of Arthur Rimbaud with the politics of, Breton joined the French Communist Party in 1927, from which he was expelled in 1933. During this time, he survived mostly off the sale of paintings from his art gallery.

Under Breton's direction, surrealism became a European movement that influenced all domains of art, and called into question the origin of human understanding and human perceptions of things and events.

In 1938 Breton accepted a cultural commission from the French government to travel to Mexico. This provided the opportunity to meet Trotsky. Breton and other surrealists sought refuge via a long boat ride from Patzcuaro to the surreal town of Erongaricuaro. Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo were among the visitors to the hidden community of intellectuals and artists. Together, Breton and Trotsky wrote a manifesto Pour un art revolutionnaire independent (published under the names of Breton and Diego Rivera) which called for "complete freedom of art", which was becoming increasingly difficult in the world situation of the time.

1940s

Breton was again in the medical corp of the French Army at the start of World War II. The Vichy government banned his writings as "the very negation of the national revolution" and Breton sought refuge in the United States and the in 1941. Breton made the acquaintance of writer Aime Cesaire, and later penned the introduction to the 1947 edition of Cesaire's Cahier d'un retour au pays natal. During his exile in New York City, he met Elisa, the Chilean woman who would become his third wife.

In 1944, he and Elisa traveled to Gaspesie in Quebec, Canada, where he wrote Arcane 17, a book which expresses his fears of World War II, describes the marvels of the Rocher Perce and the northeastern end of North America, and celebrates his newly found love with Elisa.

Later life

Breton returned to Paris in 1946, where he intervened against French colonialism (for example as a signatory of the Manifesto of the 121 against the Algerian war) and continued, until his death, to foster a second group of surrealists in the form of expositions or reviews (La Breche, 1961-1965). In 1959, Andre Breton organized an exhibit in Spain to celebrate the Fortieth Anniversary of Surrealism called the Homage to Surrealism which exhibited works by Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, Enrique Tabara and Eugenio Granell.

Andre Breton died in 1966 at 70 and was buried in the Cimetiere des Batignolles in Paris.

Works

His works include the case studies Nadja (1928) and L'Amour Fou (1937).

He married three times:

*His first wife was the former Simone Kahn.

*His second wife was the former Jacqueline Lamba, with whom he had his only child, a daughter named Aube.

*His third wife was the former Elisa Claro<.

Breton was an avid collector of art, ethnographic material, and unusual trinkets. He was particularly interested in materials from the northwest coast of North America. When faced with a financial crisis in 1931, most his collection (along with his friend Paul Eluard's) was auctioned off. He subsequently rebuilt the collection, which was preserved by family members from the time of his death until 2003, at which time his books, art, and ethnographic materials were auctioned by CamelsCohen.

References

Andre Breton: Surrealism and Painting - edited and with an introduction by Mark Polizzotti.

Manifestoes of Surrealism by Andre Breton, translated by Richard Seaver and Helen R. Lane.