André Breton collection dispersed
Sale of Breton archives broke up legacy of Surrealist movement.
André Breton (1896–1966), founder of the Surrealist movement in literature and art, embodied the principle that the imagination is the center of definitions of reality and that human creativity must be permitted to emerge unencumbered by the constraints of logic and reason.1 By the end of his life, Breton possessed more than 15,000 items in his home: man-made and natural objects, books, manuscripts and other miscellaneous curiosities and ephemera….Breton's collecting can be viewed as a revolutionary and poetic practice within everyday life. 2
However as Conley observes,”the collection mirrored French colonialist enthusiasm over time for the acquisition of spoils from the lands and people colonized by France… he did not explicitly measure the moral cost of his economic investment in his psychically powerful things.” 3
It took five days to sell Breton’s books and manuscripts. They were divided into 450 lots and include the most important founding documents of the Surrealist movement, Breton’s political speeches and signed first editions. 4
The almost total silence in the French media on this event and the total disinterest within French intellectual circles is a testament to their sclerotic and complacent state and fundamental hostility to Breton’s restless and permanent questioning of conformism and authority in artistic, social and political spheres, his refusal to accept what is. 5
The Surrealist Group in Chicago issued a Declaration in 2003 protesting the auction asking “Who Will Embalm the Embalmers?”6
One wall of Breton’s collection from his apartment on rue Fontaine in the 9e arrondissement is preserved at Pompidou Center as “André Breton’s Wall.”
The art works and collectibles from Andre Breton's estate auction held on Apr 7-17, 2003, in Paris, France were sold for $50.1 million.7
Pompidou Center — “André Breton’s Wall.”
Polizzotti, M. (1995). Revolution of the mind : The life of André Breton, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Rudosky, Christina Helena (2015). Breton the Collector: A Surrealist Poetics of the Object. Dissertation Abstracts International. 77-05. 2015.
Conley, Katharine, (2015). “Value and Hidden Cost in André Breton’s Surrealist Collection” (2015). South Central Review, 32(1), 8-22.
Mitchell, Paul. 2003. Sale of Breton archives breaks up legacy of Surrealist movement. World Socialist Web Site. May 6.
Lerougetel, Antoine (2003) Surrealist leader André Breton’s archives up for auction.World Socialist Web Site. January 11.
Declaration of the Chicago Surrealist Group, 2003 provided by Mark Rosenzweig.
Ebony, David. 2003. “Breton Auction Breaks Records.” Art in America 91 (6): 27.