Andre Breton: biography, personal life, paintings with titles and descriptions, quotes

When the word "surrealism" appears in a conversation or text, the first associations that come to mind are "painting" and "Salvador Dali". For many, the personification of the trendy trend in the first half of the last century is precisely the great mystifier. However, surrealism began, rather, with poetry, and then already developed in painting. The founder of the same direction is Andre Breton. The artist, writer and poet created the ideology of surrealism. And all his life was his center.

André Breton: biography from birth to the First World

The French writer appeared in 1896 (February 19) in Normandy. Parents dreamed that their son will receive a profitable profession and become a respected person. Andre was disaccustomed to the church school, then to college in Paris, and finally entered the Sorbonne at the medical faculty. And although Andre Breton did not become a doctor, the idea of psychiatry, born around that time, will be carried through all his life. Conclusions and ideas that have arisen in his process of studying and understanding the works of Charcot, and then Freud, in the future will be one of the foundations of the ideology of surrealism.

Turning points

Already during his studies, Andre began to study literature. During the First World War he served as a medic and in the hospital he met Guillaume Apollinaire, a famous poet who would later come up with the word "surrealism". Then a meeting with Phillip Supo followed. After returning to Paris at the end of the war, Andre, Philip, as well as their friend Louis Aragon, took up active literary activity, which resulted in the creation of a new stylistic direction.

After the war

Andre Breton after demobilization with a head plunged into the world of poetry. He admired the works of Apollinaire, with pleasure read W. Blake and Lautreamon, and in parallel continued to study psychiatry.

In 1919, Andre, together with Flipp Soupot and Louis Aragon, opened the journal Literature. At the same time Breton begins to participate in the activities of propagandists of Dadaism, the avant-garde trend, his main idea was the systematic destruction of any aesthetics. He gets acquainted with the founder of the movement, Tristan Tzara. However, Andre quickly "outgrew" Dadaism. By 1922 he had moved away from this direction and continued to create his own style. In the same year, André Breton, whose personal life was full of successful and promising events, met with Sigmund Freud in Vienna. The poet was impressed by the experiences of the creator of psychoanalysis in the field of hypnotic dreams. Freud's understanding of the works of Breton then uses in developing the ideology of surrealism.

New direction

The first collection of poems by André Breton was published in 1923. He was called the "Light of the Earth". And in the next, in 1924, he became the head of a group that unites artists and surrealists. Among the adherents of the new trend were Pablo Picasso, Francis Picabia, Max Ernst, Paul Eluard and, of course, Aragon and Supo, as well as many other young artists. By that time, most of the elements of surrealism had already taken shape, but the new direction lacked some harmony and clarity. Andre and his comrades were amazed at the public by fights and scandals at exhibitions and banqueting halls, with shocking presentations of their art. Breton, however, quickly realized the futility of the artistic trend, which is based on such ways of self-expression.

Manifest of Surrealism

The main ideas of the new artistic direction were set forth in the first Manifesto of Surrealism, which in 1924 was written by André Breton. Quotations of the document are compulsory and today accompany any text about the history or program of this current.

Surrealism in translation from the French - "super reality". Breton defined his goal in his Manifesto as possibly more thorough elimination of the boundary between dream and reality (and here it is difficult not to notice the consonance with the ideas of Freud). Somewhat later, in the essay "Surrealism and Painting", André will establish for the new direction the title not of an artistic style, but of a way of life and thoughts free from obsessive and artificial principles of logic and morals inherent in the culture of that time.

The main method

Breton offered his comrades a new way of creating a work of art, especially poetry and prose. They became "automatic writing" - a method of free expression of thoughts without restraining and limiting control of reason, aesthetics or morality. With his help, in 1920 Andre Breton together with Philippe Supo wrote "Magic Fields" published in the journal "Literature".

In its full expression, "automatic writing" should be a creativity that is not affected by taste preferences, subjective perception, momentary mood. It is free from internal and external influences, it is a pure thought, without impurities and limitations.

The ideologist of surrealism was able to transform "automatic writing" and for the needs of fine art. André Breton paintings in a sense similar to the text. Under the influence of his ideas, world-famous artists and today created their masterpieces.

In Breton, there are almost no paintings in the usual sense of the word. One can recall Paracelsus, a playing card depicting two osmines created by Andre before leaving for the US, or "Surrealist landscape", written during his fascination with Dadaism. However, the most interesting graphic works of the author are the so-called verses, which embody the synthesis of visual art and poetry. The words in them were replaced with specific objects. After many experiments, Breton came to the conclusion that the images convey a much better sense. True, the author always supplied his poems with verbal comments.

Authoritarian leader

Breton did not have an easy character. Many of his comrades-in-arms rioted against the stiffness of the dictatorship of the leader and left the movement. They have always been replaced by new ones. Thus, Aragon and Supo gave way to Buñuel and Dali. By that time (the 30s of the last century), the journal Literature received the new name "Surrealist Revolution", the novel Breton's Nadia, illustrated by the author (1928, one of the author's most famous works), and the essay " Surrealism and Painting "(1928), and also published an essay" The Revolution First and Forever "(1925). Surrealism as an unusual, "fresh" style of life and a way of understanding reality began to spread throughout the world.

New adepts of the direction brought with them additional forces and ideas. The influence of surrealism in general and, in particular, Breton on art only intensified. The meaning of Andr particularly illustrates the fact that after his death the line lasted for a short time, just a few years.

Last years

During the Second World War, Breton lived in the United States, where he continued to create and assert surrealism. Together with Duchamp and Ernst, he opened the International Exhibition of Arts. At Yale University, he gave a lecture on surrealism. In 1945, Breton returned to France. Here he actively sought to recreate the former movement, but the attempts were futile.

After returning to France, Andre participated in the Paris exhibitions, wrote many prose and poetry works (Arkan 17, Ode to Charles Fourier, Lamp in the Clock, Poems, and so on). Biographers also note the increased interest of the ideologist of surrealism in the last twenty years of his life to the occult. In 1966 (September 28) he died of pneumonia.

Impact

It's easy to understand what Andre Breton remembered first of all. Pictures with names and illustrations of the master are not so easy to find. Today Breton is primarily a founder of surrealism, a poet and prose writer, a master of the word. His influence is noticeable in many literary trends of the middle and the end of the last century. However, the master's work was inspired and continues to do so until now a large number of artists.

All that Andre Breton created: paintings, a description of the main ideas of the main artistic direction of the first half of the 20th century, publicistic and poetic works - embodied the principles of surrealism. Breton organized a new trend, combining the moods and trends of the culture of his era, and thereby gave a powerful creative charge for the art of the future. Surrealism still inspires a large number of people to create new works in the most diverse areas of art, from painting and cinema to prose and music.