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THE EXQUISITE CORPSE Guide to the Exhibition

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THE EXQUISITE CORPSE Guide to the Exhibition THE EXQUISITE CORPSE Guide to the Exhibition THE MENIL COLLECTION June 1-September 9, 2001 Yves Tanguy, Joan Mir6, Max Morise, and Man Ray, Cadavre exquis, 1927. lnk, pencil, and crayon on paper. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase (cat. no. 7) key belief of the Surrealist movement was that artists shared ecause the spirit of these collective works afforded anonymity, A the imperative to enter the unconscious mind, freeing Bmany of the cadavre exquis drawings can be attributed only themselves from the restraints of reason and habit. In his imprecisely to specific participants. Occasionally information first Surrealist Manifesto (October 1924 ), French poet Andre Breton concerning authorship was written on the backs of the sheets. Some­ defined Surrealism as "pure psychic automatism, by which one in­ times segments can be identified by a particular artist's drawing style, tends to express ... the real functioning of the mind." To achieve this subject selection, or use of color. For example, in the drawing above, "automatism," artists sought to bypass individual expression in favor each division is consistent with the work of a particular artist: Tan­ of expressing a communal unconscious. As the nineteenth-century guy's use of abstracted, biomorphic form in creating the head, Joan poet Comte de Lautreamont wrote, "Poetry will be made by all." Mir6's simple geometries and spirals in the upper torso, Max Morise's use of symbols (an arrow and numbers) in the hips and legs, and Man Ray's inventive and whimsical transformation of adavre exquis was a parlor game devised by the Surrealists as everyday objects (tennis balls and rackets) as feet. Ca means to outwit the rational mind and unlock the com­ The practice of"Exquisite Corpse" drawing continued into the munal unconscious. Originally a word game, it was soon thirties and became popular beyond its origins in France. It evolved adapted in the summer of 1925 by Yves Tanquy and his fellow Sur­ to include cut-and-pasted collage elements from found materials and realist artists. In the word game, a sheet of paper was folded and printed illustrations, attesting to the ongoing interest in chance as a passed in a clockwise direction as each player added a word or resource for meaning and interpretation. "The process was rather phrase, the folds hiding the previous players' additions from view. exciting and we made 'cadavers' out of corpses of bygone publicity The first sentence purportedly produced by five players was until our supply of old magazines was reduced to shreds ... these 'ex­ Le cadavre I exquis I boira I levin I nouveau or "The exquisite corpse quisite' compositions . brought new poetical discoveries to the al­ will drink the new wine"-thus, the game's name. The visual variant ready infinitely varied repertory of the game;' recalled Marcel Jean was played in the same manner, but with drawings (and later occa­ about the series of cadavre exquis drawings he made in Barcelona sionally collages [see illustration, below right]) replacing the words with Oscar Dominquez, Remedios Varo, and Esteban Frances. or phrases. In the word game, the paper folds that separated each As Breton concluded in his 1948 essay, "What really excited us player's addition corresponded to the French sentence structure­ about these productions was the certainty that, no matter what, they subject, modifier, verb, object, modifier. In the visual version (where could not possibly have been conjured up by a single brain and that only connecting lines from the previous player were visible to the next), they possessed to a much greater degree the capacity for 'deviation; the folds marked anatomical features: head, torso and arms, legs. a poetic quality which cannot receive too much emphasis." These For the Surrealists, the important aspect of cadavre exquis draw­ group games represented "the most unusual point of encounter"­ ings was the unfolding- the unveiling- of a surprising image cor­ a utopian form of communal thinking. responding to nothing in the realm of everyday experience. Because the players worked together with the intention of creating a single figure, what emerged were not random, abstract forms but wondrous hybrids carefully worked by each artist. The end product was both fastidious and humorous, sometimes lyrical, sometimes even macabre. Because the drawings depicted anatomical parts, they often used erotic themes in comical or perverse fashion. All of these qualities exemplified Surrealist principles. As Breton wrote in a catalogue essay for the 1948 exhibition at the Galerie Nina Dausset entitled "The Exquisite Corpse, Its Exalta­ tion," "What, in fact, excited us in these composite productions was the conviction that, at the very least, they were stamped with a uniquely collective authority and that they were endowed with that power of drifting with the current which poetry should never un­ dervalue. With the 'cadavre exquis' we had at our disposal-at last­ an infallible means of sending the mind's critical mechanism away on vacation and fully releasing its metaphorical potentialities." The composite works typically embody metamorphosis, ex­ pressed in unexpected juxtapositions. By noticing the fold lines, present-day viewers can identify the shifts in drawing style, tech­ nique, or content that signal the changes in authorship. Narrative suggestions are often introduced, and then contradicted; divergent allusions abruptly meet, and fantastic anatomies emerge. Recalling the original game, words and numbers also may be included in the drawing format. Jeannette Tanguy (?), Andre Breton, and Yves Tanguy, Cadavre exquis, 1938. Cut-and­ pasted printed reproductions on pape r. Musee national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompido u, Paris (cat. no. 23) WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION Segments of the drawings by unidentified artists are indicated as "Unknown." Cadavre exquis 1. Unknown, unknown, Andre Masson, unknown, and Yves Tanguy Cadavre exquis, 1925 Pencil and crayon on paper Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, Milan 2. Unknown, unknown, Yves Tanguy, and Andre Masson Cadavre exquis, 1925 Pencil and crayon on paper Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, Milan 3. Yves Tanguy, Andre Masson, unknown, unknown, and unknown Cadavre exquis, 1925 Pencil and crayon on paper Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, Milan Tristan Tzara, Valentine Hugo, and Andre Breton, Cadavre exquis, c. 1930. Pastel on black paper. Collection of Timothy Baum, New York (cat. no. 12) 4. Yves Tanguy, Andre Masson, unknown, and unknown Cadavre exquis, 1925 Pencil and crayon on paper Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, Milan 18. Germaine Hugnet, Jeannette Tanguy, 30. Jacques Herold, Victor Brauner, Raoul 5. Unknown, Yves Tanguy, Andre Masson, Yves Tanguy, and Georges Hugnet Ubac, and Violette Herold unknown, and unknown Cadavre exquis, February 1935 Cadavre exquis, October 15, 1938 Cadavre exquis, 1925 Pencil on paper Pencil on paper Pencil and crayon on paper Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, Milan Private collection, courtesy The Mayor Gallery, Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, Milan London 19. Jacques Herold, Victor Brauner, 6. Unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown, Violette Herold, and Raoul Ubac 31. Esteban Frances, Matta, Anne "Pajarito" and Yves Tanguy Cadavre exquis, October 15, 1935 Matta, Gordon Onslow Ford, and Yves Tanguy Cadavre exquis, 1925 Pencil on paper Cadavre exquis, summer, 1939 Pencil and crayon on paper Collection of Timothy Baum, New York Pastel on black paper Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, Milan Collection of Gordon Onslow Ford, Inverness, 20. Victor Brauner, Jacques Herold, and California 7. Yves Tanguy, Joan Mir6, Max Morise, Yves Tanguy and Man Ray Cadavre exquis, 1935 or 1936 Cadavre exquis, 1927 Pencil and cut-and-pasted printed reproductions Dessins communiques Ink, pencil, and crayon on paper on paper Another Surrealist picture game related to The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase Collection of Timothy Baum, New York Cadavre exquis is Dessins communiques [Communicated Drawings]. The first player 8. Yves Tanguy, Andre Breton, and unknown 21. Yves Tanguy, Victor Brauner, unknown, makes a drawing and shows it for three seconds Cadavre exquis, 1927 and unknown to the second player, who then must produce a Pencil and crayon on paper Cadavre exquis, c. 1937 copy from memory. The new drawing is shown Musee national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Ink on paper to a third player, and so on. Pompidou, Paris Private collection 32. Robert Rius, Andre Breton, Therese Caen, 9. Yves Tanguy, unknown, unknown, 22. Oscar Dominguez and Georges Hugnet Remedios Varo, Benjamin Peret, and Yves Tanguy and unknown Cadavre exquis, February 5, 1937 Dessins communiques, 1937-39 Cadavre exquis, March 7, 1927 Ink on Parisian cafe stationery Pencil and ink on six sheets of paper Pencil and crayon on paper Collection of Timothy Baum, New York Collection of Marcel and David Fleiss, courtesy Musee national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Galerie 1900- 2000, Paris Pompidou, Paris 23. Jeannette Tanguy (?),Andre Breton, and Yves Tanguy 33. Andre Breton, Therese Caen, Remedios 10. Andre Breton, Man Ray, Max Morise, Cadavre exquis, 1938 Varo, Benjamin Peret, Yves Tanguy, and and Yves Tanguy Cut-and-pasted printed reproductions on paper Robert Rius Cadavre exquis, May 17, 192 7 Musee national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Dessins communiques, 1937-39 Ink, pencil, and crayon on paper Pompidou, Paris Pencil and ink on six sheets of paper Musee national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Collection of Marcel Fleiss, courtesy Galerie Pompidou, Paris 24. Jacqueline Lamba, Yves Tanguy, 1900- 2000, Paris and Andre Breton 11. Joan Mir6, Max Morise, Man Ray, Cadavre exquis, February 1938 and Yves Tanguy Cut-and-pasted printed reproductions on graph THE MENIL COLLECTION Cadavre exquis, May 17, 192 7 paper 1515 Sui Ross Houston, Texas 77006 Ink, pencil, crayon, and silver paper on paper Collection of Timothy Baum, New York 713-525-9400 Musee national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 25. Andre Breton, Jacqueline Lamba, and www.menil.org Yves Tanguy 12. Tristan Tzara, Valentine Hugo, Cadavre exquis, February 7, 1938 and Andre Breton Cut-and-pasted printed reproductions on graph Cadavre exquis, c.
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