Surrealism (1936) (Herbert Read)

The International Surrealist Exhibition held in London in June 1936 was the most sensational event of its kind for many years. It drew record crowds to the New Burlington Galleries and for weeks the press was full of angry expostulations, uneasy mockery and youthful enthusiasm. Surrealism as a name and an idea was definitely established, though the public at large remained puzzled. In this volume it is fully and clearly explained. It is presented, not as one more movement from abroad, but as a fundamentally new attitude towards all aspects of life.Mr. Herbert Read, who edits the volume, writes a long introduction which in simple language relates the movement to the art of the past, defines its attitude towards present problems and reaffirms its principles in the terms of English culture. And the biological and psychological basis of the movement on the one hand, its international, political and literary aspirations on the other, are expounded by André Breton, Hugh Sykes Davies, Paul Eluard and Georges Hugnet. Hugnet’s contribution is in effect an anthology of surrealist poetry from 1870 to 1936. Finally, the volume contains 96 full-page plates illustrating paintings, drawings, sculpture and objects representing artists drawn from many countries. For those who visited the Exhibition it will serve as a commemorative volume, but it is more than this. It is a definitive manifesto for England—urgent, actual and aggressive. Such an important and exciting work on modern art has never before been published.Dust-wrapper designed by Roland PenroseCondition: grey cloth boards a little worn with some light handling marks. Spine a little shaken. Dust-jacket in good condition with heavy edgewear, multiple tears, creasing and rubbing, and some chipping and loss at the spine ends.