First Papers of Surrealism
First Papers of Surrealism is the name of an exhibition of the Surrealists in New York that was organized by André Breton and Marcel Duchamp during World War II in 1942 . Both artists had recently emigrated from France. It took place on the second floor of the Whitelaw Reid Mansion at 451 Madison Avenue, Manhattan and ran from October 14th to November 7th of that year. First Papers of Surrealism was the largest surrealist exhibition ever held in the United States.
The history
The surrealist artists had previously shown their works in solo exhibitions before their first group exhibition took place in November 1925 in Pierre Loeb's Galerie Pierre in Paris. It showed works by Giorgio de Chirico , Hans Arp , Max Ernst , Paul Klee , Man Ray , André Masson , Joan Miró , Pablo Picasso and Pierre Roy . Another joint exhibition followed in 1928 at the Au Sacre du Printemps gallery in Paris under the title: Le Surréalisme, existe-t-il? (Does surrealism exist?) . Participants included Max Ernst, André Masson, Joan Miró, Francis Picabia and Yves Tanguy . Further joint exhibitions followed: in 1931 the first surrealist exhibition in the USA took place at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford / Connecticut . In 1936, the International Surrealist Exhibition in the New Burlington Galleries in London followed and in May of the same year the Exposition Surréaliste d'Objets in the Parisian gallery Charles Ratton . This placed special emphasis on object art and referred to primitivism , fetishes and mathematical models. These exhibitions still had the usual form of presentation. Breton first created a framework in 1938 in the Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme in the Parisian gallery Beaux-Arts of surrealist art, in which the presentation itself could be considered a surrealist production. This claim joined First Papers of Surrealism at.
The exhibition
The title of the exhibition First Papers of Surrealism is derived from an immigrant's application - First Papers - for American citizenship - many Surrealists such as André Breton, Marcel Duchamp and Max Ernst had to leave Europe during World War II . Breton took over the selection of the exhibits of paintings and sculptures related to the surrealist movement for the group exhibition for the benefit of the coordination council of French emergency aid societies - except for Salvador Dalí , he was “excommunicated” from Breton and with “Avida Dollars” (Eng. “Hungry on dollars ”). He was able to win over Duchamp to install the exhibition.
| Glance into the showroom |
|---|
| Marcel Duchamp , 1942 |
| Photographer John Schiff |
| Whitelaw Reid Mansion, 451 Madison Avenue
Link to the picture |
The fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli , the company's official sponsor , had asked for as little money as possible to be spent on the installation. The imaginative Duchamp found a member of the rope industry who sold him 16 miles [= 25.75 km = 25,750 m] of twine , of which he spanned 2,500 m, which was now used for decoration. With the help of Breton, his wife Jacqueline , Max Ernst, Alexander Calder and David Hare , Duchamp created a huge spider web from the twine, which penetrated the exhibition space, so that the exclusive furnishings of the room were barely recognizable and some of the exhibits could be seen at first glance withdrawn. Duchamp had misjudged the crowd; at first they only used a mile of the string. However, a second mile was still required for re-tensioning, as the first was tensioned too close to the light bulbs and caught fire.
For the opening of the exhibition on the second floor of the Whitelaw Reid Mansion, Duchamp had come up with a surprise: the invited guests in evening attire met a dozen boys and girls who played football and handball in sportswear because of an appointment with Sidney Janis ' 11-year-old son Carroll, Skipping ropes twisted and chased through the thread barriers. Addressed by the guests, they announced succinctly: “Mr. Duchamp said we could play here ”. Marcel Duchamp was not present at the opening - in keeping with his style.
105 exhibits were on display, in addition to dolls, idols and ceremonial masks of the native Indian population, among others, works by Hans Arp , Leonora Carrington , Joseph Cornell , Esteban Frances, David Hare, Robert Motherwell , Joan Miró , Pablo Picasso , Barbara Reis, Kay Sage , Kurt Seligmann and Laurence Vail . Furthermore, was William Baziotes represented with The Butterflies of Leonardo da Vinci, Max Ernst with Surrealism and painting and La Planète affolée, Gordon Onslow Ford with First Five Horizons, André Masson with There Is No Finished World and meditation on at Oakleaf and Roberto Matta with The Earth Is a Man. Jackson Pollock was also asked if he wanted to attend but declined. According to David Hare, Pollock did not love the Surrealists because he thought they were anti-American. And the Surrealists didn't love him, expecting to be courted, which Pollock refused.
A few days after the opening, the New York Society met for the opening of Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century gallery , which was also a museum and also showed exhibits by the artists exhibiting here.
The catalog
Duchamp designed the 52-page catalog with a foreword by Sidney Janis . Among other things, it contained the “compensation portraits” of the exhibiting artists that he had designed, “found” photographs that were intended to suggest a characteristic. He was shown as Duchamp / Rrose Selavy with the careworn face of a woman in a photo of Ben Shahn.
| Front (recto) and back (verso) of the catalog |
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| Marcel Duchamp , 1942 |
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Link to the picture |
Duchamp's design emphasizes permeability and the ability to see things through. The front cover page (recto) shows a wall riddled with ball holes, which still has five balls that have not been removed, the back (verso) shows the title lines on the holes of a Swiss cheese. The foreword by Janis is preceded by an illustration that shows the names of the exhibiting artists in the form of a keyhole - again a reference to transparency, as also shown by Duchamp's string.
Duchamp had visited Kurt Seligmann's 19th-century farmhouse in Sugar Loaf near New York to design the cover , where he fired five shots at the stone wall of the house. He then used a photo of the wall for the front of the catalog. Since it is unlikely that he owned his own weapon, there are suspicions that it was Seligmann's weapon with which he took his own life 20 years later.
The Whitelaw Reid Mansion exhibition building
Whitelaw Reid Mansion was named after Whitelaw Reid , a wealthy politician and journalist who once owned the magnificent house, acquired as "Villard House". The large exhibition room from 1942 on the second floor of the south wing is now the “ Orangery ” of today's The New York Palace Hotel .
literature
- Catalog First Papers of Surrealism. Hanging by André Breton, his twine Marcel Duchamp. October 14 – November 7, 1942, 451 Madison Avenue, New York. Coordinating Council of French Relief Societies, Inc., New York 1942, unpaginated
- Calvin Tomkins : Marcel Duchamp. A biography . Hanser, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-446-20110-6
Web links
- John Vick: A New Look: Marcel Duchamp, his twine, and the 1942 First Papers of Surrealism Exhibition
- Warholstars: The "First Papers of Surrealism" auction / exhibition is held at the Whitelaw Reid mansion on Madison Avenue
- Joseph House: "First Papers of Surrealism," exhibited in Whitelaw Reid mansion
Individual evidence
- ↑ L'Art surréaliste ( Memento from June 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Uwe M. Schneede: Exposition internationale du Surréalisme, Paris 1938 . In: Bernd Klüser, Katharina Hegewisch (Hrsg.): The art of the exhibition. A documentation of thirty exemplary art exhibitions of this century , p. 94
- ↑ Volker Zotz : Breton , Rowohlt, Reinbek 1990, p. 109
- ↑ Werner Spies (Ed.): Max Ernst. Collages. Inventory and contradiction . DuMont, Cologne 1988, ISBN 3-7701-2288-7 , p. 210
- ↑ a b c Calvin Tomkins: Duchamp , p. 387 f.
- ↑ Time magazine: Inheritors of Chaos. November 2, 1942, quoted from Warholstars
- ↑ See web link Warholstars
- ↑ Calvin Tomkins: Duchamp , p. 388 f.
- ↑ Pictures from the catalog
- ↑ See web link John Vick
- ↑ Martica Sawin: From Surrealism in Exile and the Beginning of the New York School , quoted by Warholstars
- ↑ Quoted from Joseph House
