Sussex (and) Surrealism

Dr Sam Cooper

University of Sussex

S.Cooper@Sussex.ac.uk

Picasso at Muddles Green, near Chiddingly, 1950

Surrealism?Surréalisme?Super-realism?

The ‘vexed question of the proper Englishing’ of the movement

Selected Surrealist Manifestos and Groups1924 France

Yugoslavia1926 Belgium

Hungary1928 Romania1929 Czechoslovakia1934 Egypt1936 United Kingdom1938 Chile1940 Mexico

‘Surrealist Manifesto’, Andre Breton (1924)

‘We are still living under the reign of logic.’

‘Under the pretence of civilisation and progress, we have managed to banish from the mind everything that may rightly or wrongly be termed superstition or fancy; forbidden is any kind of search for truth which is not in accordance with accepted practices.’

‘I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak.’

‘And the Seventh Dream is the Dream of Isis’, David Gascoyne (1933) white curtains of infinite fatiguedominating the starborn heritage of the colonies of St Franciswhite curtains of tortured destiniesinheriting the calamities of the plagues of the desertencourage the waistlines of women to expandand the eyes of men to enlarge like pocket-camerasteach children to sin at the age of fiveto cut out the eyes of their sisters with nail-scissorsto run into the streets and offer themselves to unfrocked prieststeach insects to invade the deathbeds of rich spinstersand to engrave the foreheads of their footmen with purple signsfor the year is open the year is completethe year is full of unforeseen happeningsand the time of earthquakes is at hand

‘Automatic Drawing’, Andre Masson (1924)

Psychic Automatism

‘Exquisite Corpse’ drawing by Man Ray, Yves Tanguy, Joan Miro and Max Morise (1927)

The Surrealist Revolution (1924-1929)

The Politics of Surrealism

Surrealism in the Service of the Revolution(1930-1933)

Socialist Realism (1939)

The Politics of Surrealism

‘L’Ange du foyeur’, Max Ernst (1937)

‘The Surrealist Muse… does not often descend upon English soil; for she is terrified of the poet laureate, the censor, the Conservative Association, buy British goods, empire day, do your Christmas shopping early, the Queen’s doll’s house, sales on now, why not wear the Boston garter?’

Edouard Roditi, ‘A New Reality’ (1929)

David Gascoyne’s A Short Survey of Surrealism (1935)with cover art by Max Ernst

David Gascoyne

Gascoyne in 1951

Herbert Read’s Surrealism (1936)with cover art by Roland Penrose

Herbert Read

Read in 1941

Poster by Max Ernst

International Surrealist Exhibition 1936

Exhibition organising committee, includingHerbert Read fourth from right, back row.

International Surrealist Exhibition 1936

Sheila Legge as the Surrealist Phantom

Mass-Observation

Humphrey Jennings

Charles Madge and Tom Harrisson

Mass-Observation

‘Washing Day’ and ‘Graffiti’, both Bolton, by Humphrey Spender

Mass-Observation

‘Fence’ and ‘Working Man’s Hair Specialist’, both Bolton, by Humphrey Spender

Humphrey Jennings

Humphrey Jennings

‘Surrealist’ scenes of bomb damage in London Can Take It! (1940)

Humphrey Jennings

Graffham in Penny Journey (1938)

Lee Miller

Miller’s first Vogue cover, 15th March 1927‘Solarized’ portrait of Miller by Man Ray, c.1929

Lee Miller

‘Revenge on Culture’ (1940) ‘Women in Fire Masks’ (1941) ‘A Bombed Chapel’ (1940)

Lee Miller

Miller in Hitler’s bathtub , 1945

Roland Penrose

Roland Penrose

‘Winged Domino’ (1938)

‘The Real Woman’ (1938)

Roland Penrose

‘The Conquest of the Air’ (1938)

‘The Last Voyage of Captain Cook’ (1936)

Surrealism and Camouflage

Penrose’s ‘startle’ slide. Lee Miller camouflaged, c.1940

First World War ‘dazzle ship’

Dummy tank, 1942

Farley Farm House

Farley Farm House

Roland and Lee in Vogue, 1965

Farley Farm House

Roland Penrose’s fireplace mural (1950)

The Long Man

Edward James

‘Not to be Reproduced’ and ‘The Pleasure Principle’, both portraits of James by Rene Magritte (1937)

Seaside Surrealism

‘Swanage’, Paul Nash (c.1936)

Sweet shop window, BrightonRoland Penrose, 1937

Lee Miller and Fortune-Telling Slot Machine,Brighton

Roland Penrose, 1937

‘Working Guests’

Saul Steinberg draws the Long Man (1953)

Saul Steinberg wrestles with a hose (1953)

Dorothea Tanning and Max Ernst in the garden (1950)