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For Paalen, a man at the crossroads of the highways

Manuscript

Author

Author André Breton
People cited Kelvin, Wolfgang Paalen, Paul Valéry

Description

Manuscript of a text on Wolfgang Paalen dated November 1950 given as a preface to an exhibition at the Galerie Pierre in 1952.

‘A man at the crossroads of the highways’: Breton wrote this text about his friend Wolfgang Paalen, who had just returned from Mexico that same month of November 1950, so as to seal their reconciliation. Given as the preface to an exhibition held at the Galerie Pierre in 1952, this text would be republished in the definitive edition of Surrealism and Painting in 1965. In it Breton salutes a body of work situated between art and science, drawing on the intersecting resources of these two very different approaches in order to conjugate the rhythms of the cosmos, so as to render ‘the texture of the universe’. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005] 

Signed handwritten manuscript, Paris, 8^th November 1950. 
- 1 in-4° page manuscript in black ink with deletions and corrections, titled, signed and dated by Breton in red ink, of this text relating to the exhibition of works by Wolfgang Paalen at the Galerie Pierre in November 1952: 
‘I can think of no more rewarding task for those truly independent critics who are anxious to steer clear of well-trodden paths than to pay the most careful attention to Paalen’s evolution in his headlong rush from his so-called “cycladic” period through to his present experiments by way of his “totemic” period, and to pay equal attention to the theoretical writings with which he has favoured us in the pages of Dyn which he directed in Mexico between 1942 and 1945.’ [Auction catalogue, 2003]

The correspondence shows a resumption of relations between Paalen and Breton beginning in April 1952. It is highly likely that Breton may later have dated this text to 1950 instead of 1952. In other words, this text would date instead to 8^th November 1952. [Atelier André Breton website, 2022]

Bibliography

André Breton (Édition publiée sous la direction d'Étienne-Alain Hubert avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier et Marie-Claire Dumas), « Wolfgang Paalen, Un homme à la jonction des grands chemins », Le Surréalisme et la Peinture, Œuvres complètes, tome IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, p. 515-518, notice p. 1296-1297

Arts, Paris, 14 novembre 1952

Exhibition place

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[Pardonne ces quelques lignes hâtives...]

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Wolfgang Paalen

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Lettre de Wolfgang Paalen à André Breton, datée du 14 novembre 1952.

Une image, une notice descriptive, une bibliothèque.

[Correspondance] Correspondance avec Wolgang Paalen