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Examines the developments that paved the way for the Surrealist movement in literature and art. ... Read more

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The avant-garde movements of Dada and Surrealism continue to have a huge influence on cultural practice, especially in contemporary art, with its obsession with sexuality, fetishism, and shock tactics. In this new treatment of the subject, Hopkins focuses on the many debates surrounding these movements: the Marquis de Sade's Surrealist deification, issues of quality (How good is Dali?), the idea of the 'readymade', attitudes towards the city, the impact of Freud, attitudes to women, fetishism, and primitivism. The international nature of these movements is examined, covering the cities of Zurich, New York, Berlin, Cologne, Barcelona, Paris, London, and recenlty discovered examples in Eastern Europe. Hopkins explores the huge range of media employed by both Dada and Surrealism (collage, painting, found objects, performance art, photography, film) , whilst at the same time establishing the aesthetic differences between the movements. He also examines the Dadaist obsession with the body-as-mechanism in relation to the Surrealists' return to the fetishized/eroticized body. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

--an intelligent summary & overview of the general terrain...
Usually I read these sorts of books when I know little or nothing about the subject in question. In this case, however, I had a considerable familiarity with surrealism and dada. Still, I found this book provided an excellent historical overview of both movements. The greater and even the not-quite-great figures are all present and profiled and their contributions put into context. I thought the level of analysis was actually a cut above what you usually get in these sorts of introductory guides and yet the text remained clear and accessible; even those readers already somewhat knowledgeable about dada and surrealism are likely to find a few fresh and challenging insights.

((Two caveats: the major impact of WWI on the Dadaists struck me as seriously understated and the revisionist groping for "gender correctness" anachronistic and distorting.))

In the end, you can't go wrong with this handy little book if what you're looking for is a concise and intelligent dada/surrealist breviary. If, like me, you've read a lot of the primary texts and are a long-time fan of the artistic product of both movements, but found that you've done so in a haphazard and piecemeal fashion, this book will gather up and organize those pieces for you.

You'll feel like you took that class in art history that you never -though you wish you had--taken in school.

A Very Good, Well Balanced Overview
As a person with an enduring fascination and respect for the early Dadaists I found this introduction offered a very good and (despite the title) in-depth coverage of most aspects of Dada and Surrealism.

The theme is comparison and contrast and also the development of thematic elements in both currents: how they rose to, or challenged each other and society. The basic differences in Dada as Anti-Art and Surrealism as Art-for-arts sake is well considered. The latter bourgoeise taste was very much derided by the original Dadas. The political development of both groups is also analysed, their stances on feminism, colonialism and mass movements.

The one thing that I found not covered in this book -- and is also not covered in most books on this subject is, how two movements with such anti-establishment themes fared in the sometimes authoritarian societies that spawned them... how for example were the German Dadaist allowed to escape the Freikorps and later the Nazis? What did Franco think of Dali and Picasso? Some French Dada/Surrealists such as Andre Breton were able to escape from Vichy France to America, but what about the others...?

In short, although both streams rebelled against the main thoughts that dominated society -- they were almost all consumate individualists -- how were they able to do so? Since most Dadaists survived WWII I must surmise that either Hitler left them alone, or they lowered their profile to such a degree that they become insignificant. But again, since they were at the forefront of criticising the automaton man that society produced in WWI, the question remains, how did they manage to avoid getting it in the neck when the rest of the world was racing headlong into the twin dispairs of Fascism and Communism? ... Read more

Product Description
What kind of artists put a moustache on the Mona Lisa? Enter a urinal in an art competition? Declare their own independent republic? Hijack a ship?Dadas!
And what happens to such a movement? With Dada, many of the artists declared their own "Pope" and continued their journey (with no destination) into Surrealism, creating burning giraffes, "amoebic" dogs, and lobster telephones–some of the most imaginative and intense works of art of the 20th century.In Dada and Surrealism For Beginners, you'll get a colorful overview of these two movements, and develop a sense of the turbulent, wild, and unapologetically mad mood and tone of the Dada and Surrealist movements.Whether you're an artist, would-be artist, or someone seeking the marvelous, you'll find the courage and originality of the movements inspiring, and you'll gain an understanding of their long-term (and current) influences on contemporary art and culture – everything from performance art to pop art to the abandoned train ticket you find in the street. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Those Marvelous Dadas
Combining manifestos, art criticism, and history into a comic book is no easy task, but I think the authors have succeeded in creating an intriguing overview of a unique artistic movement. Although it is an overview, it doesn't seem oversimplified. I knew very little about Dada and Surrealism before reading this book, and I now feel that I understand some of the basic ideas behind this type of art. This book piqued my interest in learning more about the artists it presents in spite of the fact that I purchased it and read it mainly as a gesture of support to my friends who wrote it.

Even though the authors are friends of mine, I have to admit that my favorite parts of the book are the illustrations by Joseph Lee. He captures the irreverence of this artistic movement well. My biggest disappointment is the reproductions of the actual paintings. The scans seem very dark and grainy.

I have not read any other books in the For Beginners series, so I don't know how this one compares. I imagine this book would appeal to intellectual teens or adults who lack the time and/or attention span to wade through a comprehensive tome on the subject. ... Read more

Product Description
This introductory survey traces the origins and development of two revolutionary 20th-century art movements: Dada and Surrealism. It explores the full range of artistic production, including film, photography and painting. The art is situated within a context of ideas. Against the background of the slaughter of World War I, the Dadas embarked upon a total reconsideration of nationalism, materialism and the basis of art. Hugo Ball and Tristan Tzara in Zurich, Richard Huelsenbeck and Raoul Hausmann in Berlin, Francis Picabia and Andre Breton in Paris - all emphasized the freedom of the individual in their art. Dada has no consistent style and was never an organized movement. Surrealism, on the other hand, was a clearly constituted movement with a recognized charismatic leader, Andre Breton. In an attempt to reconcile the rational and irrational sides of existence, the movement explored dreams, trances and automatism. The results include the paintings of Max Ernst, Joan Miro, Salvadore Dali and Rene Magritte. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

did anyone else actually read this??
Yes, the art pictured in this book is fantastic.It shows some works that are nearly impossible to find in any other publication.However, the writing is simply horrible.The author's style is one of simple name-dropping without substance.If you are interested in reading a long-winded who's who list of artists, composers, choreographers, cinematographers, authors, and scenesters active in the early 20th century, this book is for you.If, however, you want to know more than names, read something else....but, again, the illustrations ARE great.

Excelent quality and information
Ths Mattew Gale book is full of information specially aimed for the beguiner.
Ilustrations are high quality and are 100% related to the text
The cross refference between text and images is adecuate and easy to follow.
The final presentation of the volume is excelent

Long live dada, you tiny sandwich elf.
this am a beautiful book, one of the best book of Dada and Surrealism, it. very well writen and it many pictures ^.^ must for any it fan.

Most Of What's Required
Gale provides the better part of what is required to get a sense of the Dada movement. Other books on the subject provide a more concise and readable narrative of the subject, but Gale's book is full of illustrations that offer a good feel for the works created in the various Dada cities and periods. Not definitive, but close enough.

Gale's History of Dada and Surrealism
While its 6" by 9" format necessarily limits the sizes of the illustrations, Gale's choices of which illustrations to include are excellent, ranging from the requisite Picabias, Ernsts, and Dalis to works by lesser-known (and sometimes non-European) artists like Remedios Varo. The author has thoroughly researched his subject, and the text is bothauthoritative and insightful. ... Read more

Product Description
How Dada is to break its cultural accommodation and containment today necessitates thinking the historical instances through revised application of critical and theoretical models. The volume Dada Culture: Critical Texts on the Avant-Garde moves precisely by this motive, bringing together writings which insist upon the continuity of the early twentieth century moment now at the start of the twenty-first. Engaging the complex and contradictory nature of Dada strategies, instanced in the linguistic gaming and performativity of the movement’s initial formation, and subsequently isolating the specific from the general with essays focusing on Ball, Tzara, Serner, Hausmann, Dix, Heartfield, Schwitters, Baader, Cravan and the exemplary Duchamp, the political philosophy of the avant-garde is brought to bear upon our own contemporary struggle through critical theory to comprehend the cultural usefulness, relevance, validity and effective (or otherwise) oppositionality of Dada’s infamous anti-stance.

The volume is presented in sections that progressively point towards the expanding complexity of the contemporary engagement with Dada, as what is often exhaustive historical data is forced to rethink, realign and reconfigure itself in response to the analytical rigour and exercise of later twentieth-century animal anarchic thought, the testing and cultural placement of thoughts upon the virtual, and the eventual implications for the once blissfully unproblematic idea of expression. From the opening, provocative proposition that historically Dada may have been the falsest of all false paths, the volume rounds to dispute such condemnation as demarcation continues not only of Dada’s embeddedness in western culture, but more precisely of the location of Dada culture.

Ten critical essays – by Cornelius Partsch, John Wall, T. J. Demos, Anna Schaffner, Martin I. Gaughan, Curt Germundson, Stephen C. Foster, Dafydd Jones, Joel Freeman and David Cunningham – are supplemented by the critical bibliography prepared by Timothy Shipe, which documents the past decade of Dada scholarship, and in so doing provides a valuable resource for all those engaged in Dada studies today. ... Read more

Product Description
The surrealist leader André Breton described desire as the "only master that man must recognize." One of surrealism's defining themes, desire was expressed variously in Dali's charged landscapes, Miró's lyric abstractions, and Bellmer's unsettling nudes. Influenced by Freud, the surrealists saw sexual desire as a path to self-knowledge--"a theatre of provocations and prohibitions in which life's most profound urges confront one another."

Published to accompany a major transatlantic exhibition of international surrealism, this lavishly illustrated catalogue explores desire in surrealist art in both words and images. Key works by such artists as Duchamp, Magritte, Ernst, Dali, de Chirico, Giacometti, Bellmer, Oppenheim, and Cahun are illustrated and discussed, as are surrealist films and photographs by Man Ray, Brassaï, and others. The volume also features some of the rare and beautiful books produced by the surrealists in their celebration of love, as well as a selection of fascinating manuscripts, letters, and documentary photographs that reveal the personal contexts of the group's exploration of desire. Essays by leading scholars show how the theme of desire was implicated in almost all aspects of surrealist activity--not only its art and writings, but also its political struggles and its ethical stances on issues involving individual liberty and the social control of sexuality.

This attractive and provocative volume illustrates a vision of desire that embraces both sublime exaltation and dark carnality. It shows the unprecedented intensity with which the surrealists extolled love and the extent to which they depicted desire as implicated in every thought, action, event, and encounter. A major contribution to surrealist studies, this volume is edited by Jennifer Mundy, and has contributions from Dawn Ades, Katharine Conley, Neil Cox, Carolyn J. Dean, Hal Foster, Vincent Gille, Jean-Michel Goutier, David Hopkins, Radovan Ivsic, Julia Kelly, Annie Le Brun, David Lomas, and Alyce Mahon.

February 6, 2002-May 12, 2002Amazon.com Review
Surrealism: Desire Unbound is not only a wonderfully produced catalog to accompany the Tate Modern's excellent surrealism exhibition but also a compelling addition to surrealist studies in its own right. As lavishly illustrated as you could hope for (no fewer than 300 color illustrations), the book really owes its strength to the quality of the essays, which come from some of the best art historians around. Professor Dawn Ades, the consultant editor, contributes "Surrealism, male-female," which builds on themes of sexuality and the notion of the fluidity of the category of gender so important to the surrealists, which she (and others, see particularly Surrealism and Women) has previously addressed elsewhere; her book on Marcel Duchamp, a constant reference point for so much modern art, is particularly good. Hal Foster (well known for his argument that the 1990s saw the return to bodies and spaces in art in his thought-provoking The Return of the Real) adds a superb essay on the objectification and fetishization of women within surrealist photography. David Lomas walks us through the influence of Freud (arguably the first theorist of desire and psychoanalysis) on surrealism, and Annie Le Brun rounds off the book with a look at the invention of desire by surrealism and its adoption by modernity. Desire, as a category and as an impetus, compelled much of the art and thinking of the surrealists, and this excellent volume does much to explore and problematize the issues surrounding sex, gender, and identity (the subtitle of the essential Women in Dada, which should certainly be consulted when broaching these issues) that obsessed these important artists and their often iconic art. This is a big, beautiful, and bold book that does the surrealists proud. --Mark Thwaite, Amazon.co.uk ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Love, Sex, Art: It's All in the Mind
This book gives you an idea of how incestuous the Surrealist movement was. It gives an insight into what went on in the artistic circles of the era. It is thoughtful and extraordinarily interesting. The various authors and their different viewpoints help to show the complexity of the movement and the artists without being too much in awe of artists like Man Ray or Hans Bellmer. It is also a beautiful book with a pretty pink and gold embossed cover (under the dust jacket). Full of stunning reproductions and personal photographs. Excellent read and aesthically pleasing.

Genious Unbound
Supremely thorough and wonderful.A winner. Beautiful, a spectacular book. It's what I want for xmas! lol

Surrealism Exposed
I find this book to be historically acurate, informative, and most comprehensive.In my humble opinion, a great study of one of the most thought provoking, imaginative, and subjective styles of art of all of our existence. ... Read more

Product Description
Now available in paperback, this lavishly illustrated and astonishingly comprehensive volume stands as the definitive study of the influential but deliberately elusive international Dada movement of the early twentieth century. Organized according to the primary city centers where this shifting, quintessentially avant garde movement emerged, Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, Paris features the work of 40 key artists, both infamous and lesser-known, including Louis Aragon, Hans Arp, Hugo Ball, Andre Breton, Otto Dix, Marcel Duchamp, Hannah Hoch, Man Ray, Tristan Tzara and Kurt Schwitters, to name just a few, in media spanning painting, sculpture, photography, collage, photomontage, prints and graphic work. Dynamically designed with an uncommon intelligence suited to the complexity of the movement itself, it contains hundreds of reproductions of works which, until the major traveling exhibition of 2005 and 2006 for which this book was originally produced, had for the most part never been seen in one place together. Documentary images, topical essays and an invaluable illustrated chronology of the movement make this volume uniquely essential, along with witty chronicles of events in each city center, a selected bibliography and biographies of each artist, accompanied by Dada-era photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

RARE BOOK!
This is not only great ART BOOK, and finally a more complete DADA compilation, is a HISTORY book too!
Read between the lines!

Superb
I have always had a weakness for Dada, and within this quixotic movement a special liking for Schwitters. So I visited the Dada-exposition in the Paris Centre Pompidou last year, and there bought both the Dickerman catalogue of the American exposition, and the (French language) catalogue of the Centre Pompidou itself, which differ in many ways. The exposition was wonderful by the way, and one of the best I' ve seen in many years. Thinking that a morning would be enough to see what I wanted to see, I changed my mind, decided to take dinner in the Pompidou, and stayed for the rest of the day. The immense amount of material was stunning. And the same thing really goes for both impressive catalogues. The American (Dickerman) version (520 pages) follows Dada by way of the cities where Dada developed, and does so in a more or less chronological fashion. Essays are excellent, photomaterial looks great. It is the sort of catalogue you would expect from an exposition like this. The European catalogue, more than thousand pages, printed on very thin paper, treats subjects, artists, and everything else connected with Dada according to alfabet. It seems to me that the catalogue has just about everything that could be seen at the exposition, with exception of the films of course. Although I felt a bit silly after buying both catalogues (spending some 100 euros), I was in the end very glad that I did. Everybody who buys catalogues now and then, know how disappointing these sometimes are. Well, these aren't. They are both superb, knowledgeable. And the people who made them have done a terrific job. In the end you wind up thinking: Hey, these guys (and girls) must have loved Dada as much as I do.

dada: zurich, berlin, hanover, cologne, new york, paris
dada: zurich, berlin, hanover, cologne, new yorkk, paris

A great book!
This book is wonderfully informative, plus it has so many full-color reproductions--the type of terrific catalog that inspires one to stroke its pages with a sense of seduction (works in my mind!).

Remarkable
Coupled with Hans Richter's: "Dada, Art and Antiart" and movement's philosophy and works are clearly understood. Graphics are truly great and commentary enlighten. It might be noted this book is German published as the Max Ernst book "Life and Work". Both with numerous colored plates of the highest quality. The Dada book though excels in text. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Max Ernst Pioneer of Surrealism
For all those who want to learn about the position of Max Ernst within Surrealism this is an essential book. Scholarly essays by Werner Spies (arguably the foremost authority on Max Ernst) and William Camfield, who writes in fascinating detail about the transition period when the artist moved from Dada into Surrealism. The period comes alive with rare photographs and anecdotes about the struggles of Max Ernst to survive in Germany after the first world war and his efforts to reach Paris, the promised land. Max Ernst, a true pioneer of many of the art techniques taught nowadays in artschools, such as frottage and collage, is celebrated in this book with not only almost 200 colour plates of many of his masterpieces, but also many lesser known works which show how he constructed his collages. Added to this are inumerable black and white illustrations of the sources for many of his most famous paintings. As Max Ernst never wrote an autobiography,a book such as this is a must for all those who desire to know something more about the artist who is quoted on page 28 as saying "A painter is lost when he finds himself." An artist difficult to know, but this book goes a long way in bridging that gap. ... Read more

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Product Description
The two related movements, Dada and Surrealism, dominated the art world between the two World Wars with a new form of art that was intended to shock the spectator into a new awareness of reality. But Dada and Surrealism were more than just movements in art advocating new styles of painting; they were the expression of a revolt against Western civilization and culture, in which works of art were the means to an end rather than an end in themselves. Robert Short looks at the ideas which lay at the heart of the two movements, explaining how the Dadas and the Surrealists came to produce works defying the canons of taste that had dominated European culture since the Renaissance, works whose bizarre power and striking originality have made them the most instantly recognizable and universally popular of all types of modern art. This book also reveals the considerable diversity within the two movements. Tracing Dada to its origins - Man Ray and Duchamp in New York; Hugo Ball and Jean Arp in Zurich; Huelsenbeck and George Grosz in Berlin - Robert Short describes the forms taken by Dada in different centres before it reached its extraordinary finale in Paris.He also shows that the break between the Surrealists and the Dadas was not merely the result of a struggle for control of the movement between the various personalities but had its roots in fundamental differences of belief. ... Read more

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Product Description
While Surrealism became unfashionable in Europe in the 1930s, it enjoyed increasing popularity across the Atlantic at the same time. Surrealism USA, the catalogue to the exhibition at the National Academy of Design, Surrealism USA, traces the history of this movement in the United States from the 1930s to the 1950s by examining its manifestations throughout the country--from Social Surrealism and California Post-Surrealism to Magic Realism and the beginning of Abstract Expressionism. It chronicles the wide influence of Dalí on American art, the Surrealists' response to war and fascism, and the relationship between Surrealism and abstract art. With over 100 paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings, this definitive survey brings together the work of American artists likeJoseph Cornell, Peter Blume, Kay Sage, Isamu Noguchi, Arshile Gorky, and Jackson Pollock--with that of Europeans in exile during World War II, including Salvador Dalí, Yves Tanguy, André Masson, and Max Ernst.Essays by Michael Duncan, Robert Hobbs, Robert S. Lubar andScott Rothkopf.

Introduction by Isabelle Dervaux.Hardcover, 9.5 x 11.75 in./192 pgs / 100 color and 50 b&w. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Museum Quality
I was fortunate enough to see the Surrealism USA exhibit on tour in Phoenix in July.The collection was astounding.I found this book in the Phoenix Art Museum Store, however, $50 seemed like a lot to spend on a book while on a weekend vacation.I was thrilled to find it on Amazon for much less.The book is beautiful, the photographs are museum print quality and oversized, mostly one or two on each page. The book contains a thorough history of the surrealism movement in the United States during the last century. I would not hesitate to purchase it again. ... Read more

Product Description
Born in the midst of World War I, Dada posed a fundamental challenge to established social values and artistic norms. The 1910s and early 20s marked the birth of the illustrated press and radio broadcasting, the commercial cinema, and the industrial assembly line--phenomena that all contributed to shaping this extraordinarily dynamic movement, which had an enormous influence on the art and culture of later decades. Looking at Dada is intended as an accessible introduction to Dada and its times. The book examines some 30 major, representative artworks from each of the principal cities where the movement took hold: Zurich; Berlin, Cologne, and Hannover; Paris; and New York. Largely drawing on the unparalleled collection of Dada artworks in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, it investigates all of the major areas and processes in which the Dada artists worked, including abstraction and figuration; painting, sculpture, printmaking and photography; the readymade, collage and photomontage; as well as poetry, performance and the applied arts. The bookís sequences of handsome color plates and accompanying clear discussions focus on major social and artistic questions that contributed to Dadaís consistent practice of subverting expectations, including: how Dada fundamentally reshaped our understanding of painting as a ìwindow on the world;î how it both addressed and rewrote traditional histories of portraiture and still life; how, through the photomontage and the rayograph, it expanded our understanding of the artistic potential of photography by exploring its relationship less to sight than to touch; how it reversed the traditionally oppositional relationship between photography and painting; how it deployed chance to protest the inhumane uses to which science and technology were put during World War I and to subvert cherished notions of artistic expressivity, intention and ìgenius;î how its interest in chance came to play a pivotal role in twentieth-century art history, poetry, performance, graphic design and typography; and how it set off an entire century of questioning not only the role and identity of the artist, but, more broadly, the norms of culture, politics and gender in shaping modern society. ... Read more

Product Description
Presents the essential ideas of the founder of French surrealism
... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

indispensable and of infinite importance to dreamers
It is hard to exaggerate the importance and the relevance of this book and the greatness of it's author, Andre Breton. Although a flawed and decidedly ambivalent man, Breton was the first out and out surrealist worthy of the name, seeking the spirit of magic and 'immanent transcendence' of a sort in the marvelous, a sense of mysticism and wonder in no way supernatural or otherworldly. Breton exhorts us to break the sterile and suffocating chains of rationalism and logic, and to realize the relativity of perspectives and perceptions of reality, thereby freeing both our intellect and the supreme weapon of the human mind, the imagination. The surrealist lifestyle is nothing if not a furious attempt at total liberation, and Breton knows that this cannot be said often enough. The mad, the imaginative, the dreamy and the alienated are true 'surrealists' and unwittingly live this defiant philosophy of rebellion through their resolute refusal to conform to society's norms and to replace their own thoughts with those of the uninspired, the average, the ordinary. The literary and poetic precursors Breton cites are absolutely perfect and in accordance with the ideology he is formulating:anyone who has deeply felt the power of imaginative art has felt the spirit of surrealism, and Breton was possessed by it. He once screamed furiously, "I AM SURREALISM!"--and far from seeing it as arrogant or pompous, I think he was right.

Classic and Important Work
Breton's work is one of the seminal classics of twentieth century art and literature and deserves to be read, if for no other reason, purely for historical ones.However, the intersted historian will quickly be transported beyond the realm of antiquarian curiosity and into an embodied philosophy of life that profoundly critiques and challenges the status quo.In many ways, the critiques/alternatives offered by Breton and the surrealists are more desperately needed now in the beginning of the 21st century than they were in the beginning of the 20th.

As to the previous reviewers rather shallow critique, I can only say that Breton (still read in France as one of their major 20th c. poets) has written these as witty, playful, often beatiful sometimes even rambling texts.To call them terse is to either radically misuse the word or to lack an aesthetic sensibility, or perhaps both.As for the supposed rehashing of an "old, dilapitated art school that has nothing more to say", such an unsupported critique reveals far more about the reviewer than about Breton.

Enjoy this book.

Go to a library....
Basically, if you can get past the terse text you will find a very, very out-dated system of thought. Andre Breton may have been revolutionary then, but now it is just a re-hash of an old, dilapitated art school that has nothing more to say.

A timeless triumph of the Surrealist spirit
"Manifestoes of Surrealism" is an extraordinary book thatdefines the timeless vitality of the Surrealist spirit. Speaking as asupreme oracle of Surrealist enlightenment, Breton gives us the keys tofreedom from the limitations of reason, morality and aesthetic concerns. Heinstructs us on how to become a total Surrealist that no censorship orlogic will ever stop. The texts in this volume take us into a realm whereall taboos become taboo, where it is forbidden to forbid. Surrealism isdefined not merely as a literary, artistic or philosophical movement, butas an explosion of the social order and a transformation of life itself.The opening section of the book is the original "Manifesto ofSurrealism" from 1924. This text is the earliest formulation of theessence of the classical Surrealist spirit in its purest form. The nextsection, entitled "Soluble Fish," makes use of automatic writingand shows that the dream is the great vocabulary of Surrealism. The latterhalf of the book includes the "Second Manifesto of Surrealism"and a number of more politically oriented tracts which illustrate Breton'sattempts to reconcile Surrealism with communism, an effort that ultimatelyproved to be untenable. What is exciting about this book is itsrevolutionary approach to life and its uncompromising nonconformist stance.It is a book ideally suited for the poet and the samurai, the lover and thedisciple, the astronaut and the valkyrie. With these texts, Breton hastapped into the most impossible reaches of the mind and spirit, and hiscontribution must not be underestimated. ... Read more

Product Description
Surrealism was a broad movement, which attracted many adherents. It was organized and quite strictly disciplined, at least until the death of its leader, AndrZ Breton, in 1966. As a consequence, its membership was in a constant state of flux: persons were constantly being admitted and excluded, and often the latter continued to regard themselves as Surrealists. The wide-ranging nature of the Surrealist movement was spread over many countries and many different art forms, including painting, sculpture, cinema, photography, music, theater, and literature, most notably poetry.The Historical Dictionary of Surrealism relates the history of this movement through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 600 cross-referenced dictionary entries on persons, circles, and groups who participated in the movement; a global entry on some of the journals and reviews they produced; and a sampling of major works of art, cinema, and literature. ... Read more

Product Description
Touch suggests a broad range of physical, intellectual, and emotional connections that serve to undermine the dominance of vision in histories of modernism. By exploding notions of the very nature of art, the artists considered in this beautifully illustrated monograph introduced fundamentally new conceptions of subjectivity and engagement for the modernist era.While offering an entertaining and engaging history of dada and surrealism, Please Touch presents a persuasive argument highlighting the role of "tactility," which it defines as a decentralized, fragmented, and intimate form of knowing. In this compelling volume, Janine Mileaf offers the first full-length consideration of Marcel Duchamp's readymades and their profound legacy in the transatlantic context of dada and surrealism. This book embraces a broad range of art objects: consumer items such as the urinal and bottlerack that Duchamp "sneaked" into art exhibits; flea-market assemblages fabricated by his interwar avant-garde successors Man Ray, Andre Breton, Salvador Dali, Meret Oppenheim, and others; and the bricolage boxes of American surrealist Joseph Cornell.

Please Touch is an intriguing exploration of some of the twentieth century's most important art and artists that will appeal to a broad range of art historians and interdisciplinary scholars. ... Read more