Bidspirit Auktion | BRETON, ELUARD & THE CZECH

BRETON, ELUARD & THE CZECH SURREALISTS - BRETON ANDRE: (1896-1966) French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader and principal theorist of surrealism. A.N.S., Andre Breton , to the verso of a picture postcard featuring an image of the Vltava river with the Charles Bridge tower and the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi visible in the background, n.p. (Prague), n.d. (April 1935), in French. Breton writes, in full, ´De Prague les surrealistes vous adressent l´hommage de leurs sentiments fraternels´ (Translation: ´From Prague the Surrealists send you their fraternal greetings´ ). Beneath Breton´s friendly greeting appear the signatures of Paul Eluard (1895-1952) French poet, one of the founders of the Surrealist movement, as well as ten further individuals associated with the surrealism movement in Czechoslovakia including Josef Sima (1891-1971) Czechoslovak modernist painter, Toyen (1902-1980) Marie Cerminova, Czechoslovak painter and illustrator, Bohuslav Brouk (1912-1978) Czechoslovak psychoanalyst, writer, poet & philosopher, Karel Teige (1900-1951) Czechoslovak modernist avant-garde artist and writer, Viteslav Nezval (1900-1958) Czechoslovak poet and writer, a co-founder of the Surrealist movement in Czechoslovakia, Vincenc Makovsky (1900-1966) Czechoslovak avant-garde sculptor, Jindrich Styrsky (1899-1942) Czechoslovak Surrealist painter, poet, photographer and graphic artist, Jindrich Honzl (1894-1953) Czechoslovak theatre theorist, film and theatre director, Konstantin Biebl (1898-1951) Czechoslovak poet and writer, and one other. Breton has addressed the postcard in his hand to Marko Ristic (which Breton francizes to Ristitch ) in Belgrade. A rare and impressive group of signatures relating to the Surrealist movement and with good association. A couple of small, insignificant, light water stains to two signatures at the base, VG Marco Ristic (1902-1984) Serbian Surrealist poet and writer, the founder of the Serbian Surrealist movement. Breton and Eluard arrived in Prague at the end of March 1935, where the Czech Surrealist Group had been founded a year earlier (and a decade after Breton had published his Surrealist Manifesto ). Whilst in Prague Breton delivered two speeches, one entitled Surrealist Situation of the Object , and the other Political Position of Today´s Art. The two Surrealists were presented as ´two poets, the greatest of contemporary France´ and Eluard, in a letter to Gala Dali, wrote ´I believe that Prague is for us the gateway to Moscow. But according to the opinion here we must wait a year´. Their stay in the city would last until 10th April.