SURREALISM

LENSES 

Robert Desnos

  Robert Desnos was a French poet who joined André Breton in the early Surrealist movement, soon becoming one of its most valuable members because of his ability to fall into a hypnotic trance, under which he could recite his dreams, wri...

Cabaret Voltaire

Cabaret Voltaire was the name of a nightclub in Zurich, Switzerland. It was founded by Hugo Ball, with his companion Emmy Hennings on February 5, 1916 as a cabaret for artistic and political purposes. Other founding members were Marcel Janco, Richar...

The Jazz Age

The Jazz Age describes the period from 1918-1929, the years between the end of World War I and the start of the Roaring Twenties; ending with the rise of the Great Depression, the traditional values of this age saw great decline while the American st...

Nancy Cunard

Nancy Clare Cunard (March 10, 1896 - March 17, 1965) was an English writer, editor and publisher, political activist, anarchist and poet. She was born into the British upper class but strongly rejected her family's values, devoting much of her life t...

Josephine Baker

Background information Birth name Freda Josephine Carson Born June 3, 1906, St. Louis, Missouri Died April 12, 1975, Paris, France Genre(s) Cabaret, Music Hall, French pop music Occupation(s) Singer, Dancer Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 - April 12...

Claude Cahun

Born: October 25th, 1894 Died: December 8th, 1954 Claude Cahun was a French artist, photographer and writer. Her work was both political and personal, and often played with the concepts of gender and sexuality. Biography Born Lucy Schwob in Nantes,...

Musidora

Musidora (February 23, 1889 - December 11, 1957) was the professional stage-name of a popular French silent film actress of the early 20th century. She is most remembered for her vamp persona in the roles of Irma Vep and Diana Monti in the early moti...

DADA101

WHAT *IS* DaDa? da·da [dah-dah] –noun (sometimes initial capital letter) the style and techniques of a group of artists, writers, etc., of the early 20th century who exploited accidental and incongruous effects in their work and who p...

Marchesa Casati

Luisa Casati Stampa di Soncino, Marchesa di Roma (Milan, 23 January 1881 - London, 1 June 1957) was an eccentric Italian heiress, muse, and patroness of the arts in early 20th century Europe.

Andre Breton

Andre Breton (February 19, 1896 - September 28, 1966) was a French writer, poet, and surrealist theorist, and is best known as the main founder of surrealism. His writings include the Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as pu...

Outsider_Art

The term Outsider Art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for Art Brut (which literally translates as "Raw Art" or "Rough Art"), a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boun...

Everything Vintage!

vin·tage adj.   Of or relating to a vintage. Characterized by excellence, maturity, and enduring appeal; classic.

Robert Desnos

  Robert Desnos was a French poet who joined André Breton in the early Surrealist movement, soon becoming one of its most valuable members because of his ability to fall into a hypnotic trance, under which he could recite his dreams, wri...

Fantomas

Fantomas  Fantomas is one of the most popular fictional arch-villains and master criminals in the history of French crime fiction. He is the creation of Marcel Allain (1885-1970) and Pierre Souvestre (1874-1914), a team of French writers. Fanto...

Alfred Erik Leslie Satie

Alfred Eric Leslie Satie (Honfleur, 17 May 1866 - Paris, 1 July 1925) was a French composer and pianist. Starting with his first composition in 1884, he signed his name as Erik Satie. Satie was introduced as a "gymnopedist" in 1887, shortly before w...

Elsa von Freytag

Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (sometimes also called Else von Freytag-von Loringhoven) (July 12, 1874 - December 15, 1927) was a German-born avant-garde, Dadaist artist and poet who spent most of her life in Greenwich Village, New York City,...

Unica Zurn

Unica Zurn (6 July 1916 in Berlin-Grunewald - 1970 in Paris) was a German author and painter. She is remembered for her works of anagram poetry and exhibitions of automatic drawing. Zurn began writing after World War II, writing short stories and r...

Suzy Solidor

Suzy Solidor (1900-1983) was a French singer and actress, appearing in films such as La Garconne.

Anita Berber

Anita Berber (June 10, 1899 - November 10, 1928) was a German dancer, actress, writer, and prostitute who was the subject of an Otto Dix painting. She lived during the Weimar period. Born to divorced bohemian parents (a cabarét artist and a violinis...