Preliminary draft of the poem-object 'Portrait of the actor Andre Breton'
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Notes handwritten in pen and with a pencil drawing front and back, by André Breton, circa 1940.
Two images, a descriptive note.
Author André BretonPeople cited Clément XI, Denis Diderot, Blaise Pascal, Jean Racine, Gilles de Rais ou Retz
André Breton's autograph manuscript dated 27 February 1942 and published in Le Surréalisme et la Peinture (‘Surrealism and Painting’) in 1965.
A ‘poem-object’: in line with the reflections on the object pursued since the early 1930s, Breton here comments upon a practice that he made his own and which he turned into a kind of mirror game, using the prism of his fetish date 1713 (graphically evoking his initials AB) to play the part of historical figures that can shed light on his destiny. The poem-object referred to in this text, dated February 1942, would be exhibited the following month by Pierre Matisse in his New York gallery, as part of the Artists in Exile exhibition. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]
Autograph manuscript, 27 February 1942
(1 and 1/2 page in-4 folio, handwritten, titled and dated in green ink by André Breton of this text relating to the definition of the poem-object and the number 1713:
"The poem-object is a composition that tends to combine the resources of poetry and the plastic arts, and to thereby speculate on their power of reciprocal exhilaration. The first object poem was presented by André Breton in 1929. Example of a poem-object: Portait of the Actor A.B.
"The author's initial project was to elucidate a particular graphological problem as far it affected him.”
The revised edition of Le Surréalisme et la peinture, Gallimard, 1965. [Auction Catalogue, 2003]
- André Breton, Le Surréalisme et la Peinture, réédition, Gallimard, 1965.
- André Breton (Édition publiée sous la direction d'Étienne-Alain Hubert avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier et Marie-Claire Dumas), « Du poème-objet », Le Surréalisme et la Peinture, Œuvres complètes, tome IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, p. 693-695.
Creation date | 27/02/1942 |
Bibliographical material | 1 1/2 pages in-4° folioed |
Languages | French |
Physical description | Ms - encre verte et crayon rouge |
Library | |
Breton Auction, 2003 | Lot 2241 |
Keywords | Assemblage or collage, Work notes, poem-object, Surrealism |
Categories | Andre Breton's Manuscripts |
Set | [Breton's Manuscripts and Drawings] dossier Le Surréalisme et la peinture, [AB's Manuscripts] Poems-objects |
Permanent link | https://cms.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100199560 |
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Notes handwritten in pen and with a pencil drawing front and back, by André Breton, circa 1940.
Two images, a descriptive note.
Object-poem from 1953 dedicated to Elisa and showed at the exhibition "Le Surréalisme et l'amour" at the Pavillon des Arts in 1997.
Two images, one long descriptive notice, one bibliography.