Takiguchi, Shūzō (1903–1979)
Shūzō Takiguchi was the most prominent figure in Japanese Surrealism. He penned ‘On the Poetics of Surrealism’ as early as 1928, and translated André Breton’s…
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Char, René (1907–1988)
The French poet René Char exemplified key aspects of modernism. Initially associated with Surrealism, he collaborated with poets such as André Breton and Paul Eluard,…
Breton, André (1896–1966)
André Breton was a French poet, writer, editor and critic. He is best known as one of the key founders of Surrealism. Breton published the…
Aragon, Louis (1897–1982)
French author Louis Aragon was a member of the surrealist movement until he split with André Breton and began to devote more of his energy…
Dadaism
Dada began in Zurich, Switzerland, in the midst of World War I. Several expatriate artists converged in the city to escape the brutal and seemingly…
Surrealism Overview
Soupault’s publication of Manifeste du Surréalism in 1924. Rising in the wake of the First World War, Surrealism revolted against a world that had become…
Modernism in Europe
We are living in a very singular moment of history. It is a moment of crisis, in the literal sense of that word. In every…
Automatism [REVISED AND EXPANDED]
There were different directions and forms connnected to Dada but an important element within it was a position of critique of established art and society.…
Henein, Georges (1914–1973)
The son of an Egyptian diplomat and Italian-Egyptian mother, surrealist writer Georges Henein spent his childhood between Cairo, Madrid, Rome, and Paris. It was in…
Okamoto, Tarō (1911–1996)
Tarō Okamoto [岡本太郎] (1911–1996) was one of Japan’s most visible artists during the post-World War II period. Born in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, his father was a…
Hare, David (1917–1992)
David Hare was an American sculptor and critic whose work was inspired by the imagination and the subconscious. During the early 1940s, when he began…
Nouveau Roman
The ‘Nouveau Roman’ or ‘New Novel’ is used to refer to a literary and critical movement in France during the 1950s and early 1960s. Later,…
Reverdy, Pierre (1889–1960)
Pierre Reverdy was born in Narbonne, France, on 13 September 1889, and died in Solesmes, home of the St Peter’s Abbey, on 17 June 1960.…
Ross, W. W. E. (1894–1966)
William Wrightson Eustace Ross was a pioneering modernist poet in Canada in the early twentieth century. He experimented with free verse, Imagism, and Japanese poetic…
Tanguy, Yves (1900–1955)
Yves Tanguy was a French painter and one of the principal members of the Surrealist group. His main artistic output consisted of oil paintings, which…
Maria Martins (1894–1973)
Maria Martins was a Brazilian sculptor and writer, a founding member of the Fundação do Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, and a…
Boghossian, Alexander (Skunder) (1937–2003)
Alexander Boghossian, better known as Skunder, was one of the most prominent figures of African modernism. Born in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia in 1937 to…
Mass Observation
Mass Observation was founded in 1937 by filmmaker Humphrey Jennings, poet Charles Madge, and ethnologist and explorer Tom Harrisson. It was originally conceived as a…
Rahon, Alice (1904-1987)
Alice Rahon (1904-1987) was a French-born artist and poet associated with the Surrealist movement and Mexican art. Rahon was born Alice Marie Yvonne Philppot in…
Bataille, Georges Albert Maurice Victor (1897–1962)
Georges Bataille (September 10, 1897–July 9, 1962) was a French writer who synthesized ideas from many disciplines. He converted to Catholicism at the start of…
Oppenheim, Meret Elisabeth (1913–1985)
Meret Oppenheim was a Swiss artist primarily known as a maker of Surrealist objects. Born in Berlin-Charlottenburg to a German father and Swiss mother, Oppenheim…
Man Ray (1890-1976)
Born Emmanuel Radnitzky, Man Ray was one of the key innovators in modernist photography, film, and object making. He began his artistic career as a…
Ernst, Max (1891–1976)
Max Ernst was a painter, sculptor and printmaker. He was born in Germany, but he lived in Paris and then New York; he returned to…
Matta, Roberto (1911–2002)
Chilean architect and artist Robert Matta Echaurren (b. 1911, Santiago, Chile; d. Civitavecchia, Italy 2002) is considered one of the most important figures of the…
Hyppolite, Hector (c. 1894–1948)
Haitian painter Hector Hyppolite (born: c.1894 (uncertain) in Saint Marc, Haiti; died: 1948 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is best known for his inventive depictions of Haitian…