Description

Several texts, handwritten in ink, by Breton about Gaulish coins, as well as about the journal Médium, edited by Jean Schuster.

A list in the mode of a Jacques Prévert poem allows us to account for this sheet of paper, transformed by means of its folds into a small and rather ill-matched album. Apart from a text on Gallic coins, no doubt written at the time of the ‘The Enduring Quality of Gallic art’ exhibition that took place at the Musée pédagogique from 18 February to 2 April 1955, we note a set of technical arrangements concerning the journal Médium, then edited by Jean Schuster; the style sheet and agenda for what needs finishing are among the things allowing us to follow closely the administration of the journal.

On one page, various handwritten texts by André Breton in red and blue ink, on Gallic art as well as Kanak masks:
‘It is important to observe that the Gauls’ art of imitation is not about perfecting but degenerating.’
‘Ornament of an Apouema mask. A white ovum with a hole through which a strap of dogfish hair is passed.

Exhibition.
‘Pérennité de l'art gaulois’, Musée pédagogique, 29 rue d'Ulm Paris, 18 February to 2 April 1955.

*This entry was translated from the French by Michael Richardson.

Creation date	sd [1955]
Date of publication	1955
Languages	French
Physical description	2 pages in-4° Ms et Ts - encres noire et rouge
Reference	586000
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2396
Keywords	Gaulish Art, Mask, Monies, Work notes, Ceremonial Art, Oceania, Reviews and Journals
Categories	Andre Breton's Manuscripts
Set	[Breton's Manuscripts and Drawings] dossier Le Surréalisme et la peinture
Exhibition	Pérennité de l'art gaulois
Permanent link	https://cms.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100023330

Description

Manuscript of a text relating to the numismatics of the ancient peoples of Gaul.

A discovery? No, a ‘revelation’. We know that Breton became an informed collector of Gallic coins towards the end of his life, their fascination for him being as a refusal or resistance offered to the solar and rational domination of Graeco-Roman aesthetics. Taking his cue from Apollinaire, in this essay he establishes an unprecedented relationship between this forgotten age and the most exciting discoveries of modern art - in particular Duchamp's idea of a ‘non-retinal’ art. A culture of secret resistance, favouring mystery over reason, night over day, Gallic art appears on reading this text as one of the secret ancestors of Surrealism’s secret ancestors.

‘Présent des Gaules’ - written for the exhibition Pérennité de l'art gaulois [Perenniality of Gallic Art] held at the Musée pédagogique in February 1955 - was included in the definitive edition of Surréalisme et la peinture[Surrealism and Painting] in 1965.

Signed autograph manuscript, Paris, 3 January 1955 

2 handwritten pages in-4°, titled, dated and signed in ink by Breton, with erasures and corrections, of this text concerning the numismatics of the ancient peoples of Gaul: 

"The discovery of Gallic medallions - or, rather, the revelation in broad daylight of the art that presides over them - provides an unexpected degree of help and assurance in this regard. We are fully indebted to Lancelot Lengyel for this very recent revelation. Before him, these small coins, long-despised (...) had only aroused an interest limited mostly to the requirements of historical investigation.”

(Ink stain in the centre of the first page)

Exhibition

- Pérennité de l'art gaulois [Perenniality of Gallic Art], Musée pédagogique, 29 rue d'Ulm Paris, 18 February to 2 April 1955.

 

Bibliography

- André Breton, Réédition de Le Surréalisme et la peinture, Gallimard, 1965
- André Breton, préface pour une exposition au Musée pédagogique du 29 rue d'Ulm, février 1955.

Creation date	03-janv.-55
Date of publication	1955
Languages	French
Physical description	Ms - encre noire
Reference	700000
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2396
Keywords	Gaulish Art, Monies, Work notes
Categories	Andre Breton's Manuscripts
Set	[Breton's Manuscripts and Drawings] dossier Le Surréalisme et la peinture
Exhibition	Pérennité de l'art gaulois
Permanent link	https://cms.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100071160

See also