Andre Breton
Picasso never officially joined the surrealist movement but his work is heavily connected to that of the surrealists. Andre Breton the author of the first and second manifesto’s of surrealism admired and championed Picasso because of “the emotional violence” and “expressive distortion” in his work. It is also clear that Picasso was also influenced by the surrealists work. Whereas Picasso moved naturally and “internally” towards Cubism, for him Surrealism was an “outside” influence. Instead of embodying surrealism “Picasso took from it only those elements which could enrich his own art; he used it just as he had used the art of the past or of non-European cultures.” Picasso was closely connected and friendly with many members of the movement including surrealist poets such as Paul Elard. He even attempted writing some of his own surrealist automatic poetry which he planned to publish in 1939 along side some etchings (he never did!).
In “The Three Dancers” we see the surrealist ideals come alive. Andre Breton wrote that “Beauty is convulsive or not at all!” This is so apparent in Picasso’s erotic dislocated and frenzied bodies, his expressive use of colour and strong gestures. Picasso’s cubist influences make his work “violently explosive” and passionate. The work is certainly beautiful and convulsive. The contradiction of these two words is central to the surrealist practise of taking random objects or words and finding them fitting together.
“The three dancers” is a focal point in the connection between Picasso and the Surrealists. “Within weeks of completion, The Three Dancers appeared in a journal illustrating Breton's manifesto Surrealism and Painting. It is Picasso's public confession of surrealism” as well as another glowing acknowledgment of Picasso from Breton.
Another piece of writing by Breton, “Surrealism and Painting “(1928), is described by Bataille as installing (whithin the text) “ the older artist a transcendental beacon, whose cubist break with mimetic realism had inaugurated surrealist painting and whose recent art represented a liberating evasion of reality.”
Whereas Surrealism began as a writing practise to do with the subconscious, unconscious, dreams and the automatic, when it did eventually break into the aesthetic Picasso was featured in the first group exhibition (although the work shown was Cubist).
“Painting could indeed be fruitful terrain for surrealist work. Breton’s model for this is Picasso.”
Breton writes “It’s very nice to paint, and it is very nice not to paint as well.” In his essay Surrealism and Painting - he obviously thought Picasso was perfect for the job of “painter” and included him amongst and above the surrealist painters such as Max Ernst who were obviously admirers of Picasso’s work as he was for them the gateway between painting and surrealism. However, the opposite also holds. The “grattage” technique invented by Ernst apparent in the paintings in room one was a way of letting chance take hold of the work. Whilst Picasso controlled his paintings he took note of the fact that “the creative imagination is stimulated by amorphous or irregularly shaped objects, such as clouds, rocks, fragments of walls, and tree barks.” He used the fact that the human brain will see different and dream like things within marks and images. Picasso did not use “grattage” but it is apparent in some of his drawing that he used this idea. Hallucinatory imagery and secrets are revealed in trees and plants in his works playing on the idea of the subconscious eye. The difference being that Picasso controlled this whereas Ernst left it to chance.
The main reason that Picasso would not fully include himself in the surrealist group was because of his failure to accept the automatic. One of Breton’s demands did not fit Picasso’s artistic endeavor- “the desire to make the unconscious mind the sole wellspring of artistic activity.’
Picasso did not practice "automatic" painting or drawing. Instead he had his own and approach to the surreal. He did not want to “ lose sight of nature." (Pablo Picasso) “His concern was with "a deeper similarity, which is more real than reality and thus attains to the surreal."
In the essay “Picasso Meteor” by Georges Ribemant- Dessaignes it is argued that “The surrealists unjustifiably lay claim to a man who, for various reasons, acts as their beacon, their keel, their wind and even their ocean.” I would argue that they worshipped but they did not claim. Picasso did not join the surrealist movement because his work was not surrealist but the influences remain. His work was key to the inspiration of many surrealists. Picasso did not rely on chance but the aesthetics were that of the surreal. He embraced the things he believed in, tried the automatic and applauded the surrealists. I would like to finish with a poem written about Picasso in surrealist publication DOCUMENTS in 1930:
HUMORAGE TO PICASSO
“Our pal Picasso,
Long live his brush – oh!
Pirate and Corsair,
Here’s to the horsehair!
(Apollinaire)
This star like a digit,
This tree like a tomb,
This sun like a mollusc,
Picasso, that’s whom!
This nondescript newsprint,
Twin screw- clamp bazoom,
This gateau- crumb sawdust,
Picasso, that’s whom!
This plant-pot with hair on,
Eyes like a birds bum,
Top brass-knocker’s knapsack,
Picasso, fo- fum!
This soft stuff, this tough stuff,
Touched up with a broom,
Pump-grind it to lime-sludge,
Picasso that’s whom!
This topcoat, this back-stick,
This talk, spread like lipstick
On small buttered biscuit-
Picasstic!
This boneless sky, bare leafless view,
Beach-beauty like a lamb jigoo,
This horseflesh like a wooden shoe-
Picashoo!
This Socrates, stove-torso,
Splits diamond-ice from water
To prick a picture-pableau,
Picorso!
This matchstick pricking a mistake,
This scythe that imitates a rake,
To paint a laugh on Frou-Frou – who?
Pickuckoo
Napoleon’s fresh husk-oh,
Fresh husk on the nap-oh,
Fresh nap on the brush-oh,
Picasso!
Roger Vitrac
The Three Dancers
(research for a essay and presentation - some references ommited)
