Surrealism Beyond Borders

"L'enigme de Isidore Ducasse" by Man Ray

Here are some factoids from "Surrealism Beyond Borders"which just concluded a run at the Met. Man Ray's "L'enigme de Isidore Ducasse" ("The Enigma of Isidore Ducasse,"1920) is a surrealist homage to Ducasse aka the Count de Lautreamont famous for describing beauty "as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table." Could Man Ray's covered sewing machine have been a Duchampian "objet trouve?" Antonin Artaud, famous for the Theatre of Cruelty, was the director of the Bureau de recherché surrealist founded on October 11, 1924. Artaud called it an "agency of communication," a parodic form of nomenclature, typical of the surrealist esthetic, and not meant to be confused with the phone company. The writerly expression of "Automatism,"  which sought to free"mysterious moments" from the "superposition" of rationality" in order to unearth "what lies behind reality" found expression in Aleppo, Syria no less. This legacy of Andre Breton's "Surrealist Manifesto" is not something one expects in a locale noted for the tyrannical Al-assad dynasty. However, the writer Urkhan Muyassar gave expression to it in a form of writing, called "suryai" in l947. "Traum" ("Sueno," 1933)  a film about a dreamer by the Argentine filmmaker Horacio Coppola greets you on entry. Shades of Un Chien Andalou (1929)? Is it a stretch to refer to of inclusive effort of the recent exhibit as "the Socialist International of Surrealism?"

watch the animation of Erotomania on You Tube

and listen to the best version of "Piece of My Heart," ever by Erma Franklin