After sketching a portrait of the Surrealist circle, Breton eventually gives his definition of what Surrealism is:
Surrealism, n. A purely psychological form of automatic reflex by which one sets out to express, either verbally, or in writing, or in any other fashion, the operation of thought. Dictation from thought, in the absence of any exercise or control on the part of reason, outside every aesthetic or moral preoccupation.
Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Surrealism rests on a belief in the superior reality of certain forms of associations that, until it appeared, had been neglected, on a belief in the absolute power of the dream and in the disinterested play of thought. It aims to ruin conclusively all the other psychological mechanisms and to substitute itself for them in the resolution of the principal problems of life.[52]
In this fashion, Breton consolidated the language of Surrealism, for the sake of which the Dadaists had been striving to destroy the outdated language of art. Breton’s automatism of composition was basically a literary affair. In his manifesto he gives a lesson in this kind of writing, asserting that: “[L]anguage was given to man for him to use it in a surrealist way.”[53] When it came to the language of other fields of art, such as painting and sculpture, Breton’s disciples would have to find it by themselves in their own individual fields.
From December 1, 1924, the journal La Révolution surréaliste, run by Pierre Naville and Benjamin Peret, and printing the work of Aragon, Éluard, Soupault, Vitrac and numerous others, became the printed mouthpiece of the Surrealists. It was dressed up to look serious, outwardly imitating such scientific journals as La Nature, and became one of the most talked-about journals in Paris. From 1925, Breton was in charge of the journal. They established an “Office of Surrealist Research”, rather like a laboratory, where they would engage in Surrealist experiments. “At number 15 on the Rue de Grenelle”, wrote Aragon, “we opened a romantic hostel for unclassifiable ideas and ongoing revolts. Anything in this universe of despair for which there is still hope, may one day look up in its final delirium towards our pitiful little workshop: we were trying to arrive at a new declaration of the rights of man.”[54] They sent briefings to the press – their “butterflies” flew out of the office at very frequent intervals. Every Surrealists’ get-together, at the apartment of one of the group, or at one of their favourite cafes – Certa, Cyrano, the tabac on the Place Pigalle, or the Café de la Place Blanche – was usually accompanied by games. In 1925, the Surrealists published their first “exquisite corpses” – the result of their favourite game. “A game with folded pieces of paper, which consists in having a sentence or a drawing put together by several persons, without any of them being able to take account of the contribution or contributions that preceded it. The example, now a classic, which has given the game its name, is contained in the first sentence obtained in this fashion: “The exquisite corpses will drink the new wine.” For the Surrealists, this game was an example, first of all, of automatic, absolutely unpremeditated creativity, and second, of the creativity of a team.
La Révolution surréaliste carried on the business of Dada, overturning the authorities of the old art. A pamphlet against Anatole France was entitled “A Corpse”. “An old man like the rest of them”, wrote Éluard. “A ridiculous character, and so empty”, Soupault seconded him. “Have you ever given a dead man a slap in the face?” inquired Aragon, and gave a summing-up: “On certain days I have dreamed of a rubber to erase the squalor of humanity.”[55] All this created a loud scandal, as did the special events they organised. One of them was the “Homage to Saint-Pol-Roux” organised by “Les Nouvelles littéraires” on the Boulevard Montparnasse, at La Closerie des Lilas. Here the Surrealists poured scorn on writers who, in their eyes, belonged to the category of obsolete literature. Their conduct itself was abusive and unacceptable: Soupault, for example, swung on the chandelier. The woman writer Rachilde later complained that a tall fellow there with a German accent kicked her (it was probably Max Ernst). The scandalous situation which had started in the restaurant spilled out onto the street. However, for the future of Surrealism, the views they expressed that were related to art and the language of painting were of much more importance.
In addition to the journal, the Surrealists published separate declarations as well. The “Declaration of 27 July 1925” stated: “Surrealism is not a new or easier means of expression, nor even a metaphysic of poetry. It is a means of total liberation of the mind and of everything in common with it. …Surrealism is not a poetic form. It is a cry of the mind…”
In 1926, collections of Surrealist poems by Aragon, Paris Peasant, and Éluard, The Capital of Pain, rolled off the press. Éluard’s poems were enigmatic and refined:
The river which I have under the tongue
The water which people do not imagine, my little boat,
And, the curtains lowered, let us talk.[56]
Despite their seemingly accidental quality and spontaneity, and the word-games and automatic writing they employ, these poems produced a striking image of the Surrealist world which the poets and the artists alongside them were creating:
In a few seconds
The painter and his model
Will take flight.
More virtues
Or fewer misfortunes
I notice a statue
A sort of almond
A shiny medal
For the biggest grief.[57]
Kay Sage, I Saw Three Cities, 1944.
Oil on canvas, 92 × 71 cm.
Princeton University Art Museum, gift of Kay Sage Tanguy, Princeton.
Félix Labisse, The Camp of Drap d’Or, 1943.
Private Collection.
Sometimes an Éluard poem is limited to only one line, to give the maximum possible concentration to its expressive impact:
She tells the future. And I am responsible for confirming the truth of it.[58]
Sometimes the poet, it seems, forgets about mystery, about Surrealism, and reveals realistic human emotions:
The heart bruised, the soul aching, the hands tired out, the hair white, the prisoners, all the water has come upon me like an open wound.[59]
In 1925, there also occurred an event of exceptional importance: the first joint exhibition of Surrealist painting was held in Paris at the Galerie Pierre. The artists involved were Arp, de Chirico, Ernst, Klee, Man Ray, Miró, Picasso and Pierre Roy. It was the beginning of the succession of displays of painting and sculpture that make it possible to speak of Surrealism both as a phenomenon and at the same time as the union of diverse and outstanding aesthetic talents. In the same year, the Galerie Pierre organised an exhibition of Juan Miró. On 26 March 1926, the Galerie Surréaliste was solemnly opened, and it showed work by Duchamp and Picabia, as well as those artists already named. In 1928, the Galerie Bernheim put on an individual exhibition of Max Ernst. The ranks of the Surrealist artists in Paris were reinforced