Almanach surréaliste du demi-siècle
INV-2445Surrealism20th Centurylithographillustration
Date
1950
Medium
Illustrated book with two colour lithographs, eight plates after various artists and illustrations throughout
Dimensions
H.: 23 cm (9 1/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Mary Reynolds Collection Fund, Ryerson & Burnham Libraries
Published by the journal La Nef in 1950, Almanach surréaliste du demi-siècle (Surrealist Almanac of the Half-Century) includes texts by French Surrealist artists and writers André Breton, Antonin Artaud, Julien Gracq, and Benjamin Péret and illustrations by Max Ernst, Dorothea Tanning, and Toyen. Surrealist periodicals often included controversial declarations about religion and politics, but Almanach surréaliste, uniquely, did not.
Almanach surréaliste begins with Breton and Péret’s Calendier tour du Monde des Inventions Tolerable (Round the World Calendar of Tolerable Inventions). Each month of the calendar highlights several innovations from different cultures and eras, such as the invention of mayonnaise or the kaleidoscope. The Panorama du Demi-Siecle includes a chart of happenings in art, politics, and science at the time. The Almanach surréaliste also features photographic reproductions of various Surrealist artworks, including Giorgio de Chirico's Child’s Brain (1914; Modern Museet, Stockholm), retouched so the main figure’s eyes are revealed. Breton delighted in the alteration going unnoticed by the publication’s readers.
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