The Eye of the Poet: André Breton and the Visual Arts - Hardcover

by Elza Adamowicz (Author)

Illustrated throughout, a revealing look at the life and work of surrealist artist and collector André Breton.

This is the first comprehensive study in English of surrealist leader André Breton's lifelong commitment to the visual arts. As an essayist, art critic, collector, gallery director, and artist, he actively promoted many painters, from turn-of-the-century Moreau and outsider artists to fellow surrealists like Ernst and Masson.

The book tracks both the development of Breton's surrealist aesthetics within the Parisian avant-garde art scene and the centrality of art to his political agenda. It also highlights Breton the collector and collagist--the works he displayed in his Paris apartment, ranging from Oceanic masks to African sculptures, paintings to pebbles, are themselves seen as an ever-changing assemblage.

Author Biography

Elza Adamowicz is professor emerita of French literature and visual culture at the Queen Mary University of London. Among her numerous studies on the European avant-garde, she is the author of Dada Bodies: Between Battlefield and Fairground.